Submitted by Tom on Sun, 2010-02-28 09:50
Janis Thogmartin asks "Why can't we get a plan?" in an Ames Tribune LTE:
"Instead, Grassley and Latham prefer to go along with an insurance industry that offers higher and higher premiums with higher and higher co-pays."
It is hard for me to understand why Sen. Charles Grassley and Rep. Tom Latham want to deny Americans access to the same quality of health insurance that they enjoy at the U.S. Senate and House.
Both are opposed to an optional government plan, which would allow American families to decide for themselves if they want to participate in such a plan. Instead, Grassley and Latham prefer to go along with an insurance industry that offers higher and higher premiums with higher and higher co-pays.
Yet less of the money that we pay into our insurance plans is paid out for medical coverage and a bigger percentage of it is paid to lobby Congress, to hire consultants to second-guess our doctors, and for their huge CEO salaries.
Insurance company profits are up, although the number of people they insure has decreased. Insurance companies are allowed to cherry-pick only those that are healthy and drop those that need insurance the most. It’s immoral that we allow people to go bankrupt, or, even worse, to die, due to lack of health insurance.
The other developed countries of the world, most of which have fewer resources than we have, are able to come up with a plan to make sure their countrymen have access to medical care. Why can’t we?
Janis Thogmartin
Ames