Letters to the Editor for April 10, 2009

Time to improve healthcare

To the editor:

Congress is considering the best way to improve healthcare in America. Doing this huge undertaking is both commendable and necessary. With one in six Americans either uninsured or underinsured, we must not let this opportunity pass. I believe that the new system must include a public option like Medicare, and that we need to be able to choose between keeping for-profit insurance or changing to a public healthcare option.

Yes, a government sponsored program. (And don’t complain about a government program as being inefficient because private programs include a profit motive, which not only skyrockets the cost, but also reduces employee earnings.) Let’s join the other 16 industrialized nations that have some form of national healthcare and get on with living healthful and productive lives.

Bruce Raffety

Baker City