Our current system
As a registered nurse for 48 years, now retired, I have seen how inaccessible and inefficient our current system of health care is for a large number of Americans. Many of our citizens have no insurance against financial catastrophe should they encounter a major illness or accident. One consequence of this is to force delay of treatment until serious illness results in the most costly level of care.
Health-care providers are all too aware that the uninsured often visit emergency rooms -- the most costly of options -- in order to receive care for illnesses that could be treated at a much less costly place if insurance reimbursement were available.
The American Nurses Association supports President Obama's plan for health-insurance reform because it knows our present system is working better for the insurance companies than it is for the American people. The scare tactics recently employed are designed to protect the profits of the insurance industry. It would behoove us all to "follow the money" as we try to sort through all the advertising attempting to derail the reform effort.
As to the issue of cost, I wonder how we quantify the cost to us as a nation of millions of uninsured and the consequences to their health. We are already bearing that cost and will continue to do so until we get on with true reform to the health-insurance industry. We cannot afford not to do it.
PATRICIA SHOEMAKER
Lexington
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