HEALTH CARE: Ask the right question

In exploring a critical issue, columnist Chuck Malloy and the leaders he quotes ask the wrong question. The fundamental quandary our society faces is not whether health insurance is a right, but whether health care is.

Health insurance — availability, cost, who pays for it — is an issue only because of the entrenchment of the insurance industry in our health care delivery system.

There are no good or easy answers. An overwhelming portion of the cost of medical care in this country is in our bureaucratic administrative system, both public and private. Given that, taking the health insurance industry out of the mix altogether — forgetting it ever existed — is an answer, but that’s not going to happen; the transition and economic havoc that would result makes that one out of the question. A so-called single payer system would be an improvement, but in our political climate that one’s not going to happen either. Surely there are others — LET’S LOOK FOR THEM!

I do believe basic health care is a right, and should be within the grasp of each of us. Time and time again we’ve had demonstrated to us that a sick or weak society is a costly and unsustainable one, and that it is in our collective economic interest to keep our citizens healthy. It’s time our leaders step up to the plate and deliver workable answers.

JUDITH HORTON

Coeur d’Alene