Health Care & The Common Good

Steve's letter to the editor, published today in the Lancaster Intelligencer Journal:

TO THE EDITOR:

Questioning the questioning of poverty statistics

In his letter, "Questioning statistics on poverty" (Intell, July 2), P. Melville Nafziger makes several comments about the health care crisis that are either uninformed or intentionally misleading.

Nafziger doubts there are 45 million uninsured and wonders whether they are all U.S. citizens. Yes, that figure is for legal citizens and it is actually closer to 50 million since about one million a year have been added to the ranks of the uninsured since the turn of the century.

That doesn't include the millions more with insurance who are often denied treatment because of the propensity of insurance companies to use every conceivable trick to avoid paying medical costs.

Nafziger claims Canadian stroke or heart attack victims wait for months for necessary treatment and Canadians are dying waiting for services.

This is not true. Either he is making this up or he is repeating propaganda from the insurance industry and right-wing think tanks.

All Canadians in need of immediate medical attention receive it promptly regardless of their ability to pay. Others wait no longer to see a specialist than we do in the United States. The vast majority of Canadians would not trade their health care system for ours.

We stand alone among industrialized nations in not providing universal health care. People in other civilized countries wonder what is wrong with us that we treat our fellow citizens so poorly.

Whereas other countries understand that upholding the common good is vital for a healthy democracy and have a collective attitude, we seem to be stuck in hyper-individualism and selfishness.

Recognizing health care as a fundamental right is not communism or socialism, it is simply basic decency.

Steven Jones, Landisville