Health care
William Duffy of Colorado Springs writes:
It is easy to arrogantly sit up on ones high horse demeaning our less deserving neighbor who “smokes like a chimney, drinks like a fish, eats like there’s no tomorrow, and exercises only the remote control.” However, he ought to consider the fact that everybody is susceptible to an uncontrollable, significantly expensive health crisis. Just consider the parent faced with a disabled newborn, or a family member with a head injury as a result of an accident. With a lack of community rating in health insurance, a small employer faced with an employee’s expensive health crisis will see premiums soar.
One adverse result is that such an event can motivate a termination. A boss faced with this problem quickly finds new reasons to raise the bar on job performance that the employee cannot meet.
At the time when he most needs coverage, the poor wretch discovers that both his job and his health insurance are lost.
The solution to this problem is not simply generating more patches to our flawed, employer-based, health insurance system. The solution is Universal Coverage. Everyone must be covered so the costs can be shared between both the healthy and ill members of our society.
This letter has not been edited.