To the editor: Contributing author Veronique de Rugy proposes one other free-market answer to our healthcare issues, however there’s an inherent drawback she ignores (“Why healthcare is so costly in America, and what to do about it,” March 5).
The essential requirement for a “free market” is that there be a keen purchaser and a keen vendor. That signifies that each the client and the vendor have to be keen and in a position to stroll away from the deal if it’s not passable to them. This doesn’t exist on both facet in healthcare; suppliers are required by regulation to deal with sufferers, and sick or injured persons are hardly ready to stroll away if the therapy is a bit more expensive than they want. Whereas Well being Financial savings Accounts could be an ideal alternative for the monetary establishments that may maintain all that cash, they won’t clear up our healthcare issues.
It’s value noting that many developed international locations have healthcare programs that carry out higher than ours, costing much less with equal or higher well being outcomes. None of those international locations have a “free market” system. All of them have common care managed by their governments.
When is the U.S. going to simply accept that we’re not smarter than everybody else on the planet and undertake common care that has been proved to work in so many international locations?
John La Grange, Solana Seaside
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To the editor: De Rugy’s evaluation on the extraordinary price of healthcare within the U.S. begins on the unsuitable premise to start with. Not like merchandise and companies, healthcare shouldn’t be for revenue any greater than primary training, postal service, the hearth division, and so on.
The tax code she’s criticizing is projected to price the federal government $487 billion this 12 months. She references this as if that’s a disaster, as if sponsoring healthcare is an abomination.
Common healthcare, as they’ve in Europe, has been criticized by American politicians as second-rate healthcare, however it’s not so. Europeans are usually more healthy, dwell longer and endure procedures and care with the identical stage of high quality. Europeans contribute to healthcare prices with their taxes.
I’m afraid De Rugy’s evaluation is defective. Healthcare in America ought to be a proper, not a privilege.
Marie Mulligan, Manhattan Seaside
