Leaders in the fight for access to health care - Letters to the Editor - Medical Economics

Medical Economics
June 18, 2001
Letters to the Editors

I read with interest the April 23 "Memo From the Editor" regarding the roundtable discussion on the state of our nation's health care. While I respect the members of that select panel, I don't think it should have dismissed a universal national health plan as passé.

I, along with nearly 10,000 other disgruntled physicians, belong to Physicians for a National Health Program (www.pnhp.org). We readily acknowledge that the US health care system is seriously flawed. Despite the fact that this country spends far more on health care than any other industrialized nation, over 42 million Americans have no health care coverage.

I agree that Hillary Clinton's plan was flawed, but we've got to do something other than apply more Band-Aids to remedy our current mess. While Congress has already passed a gigantic tax cut, and is considering a multitrillion-dollar defense shield, we still have not acted to ensure that every citizen has adequate access to health care.

Howie Wolf, MD
Lafayette, CO
Lobo985@home.com

Editor's Note: For the roundtable discussion itself, see "What it will take to fix the system."

Part I of the roundtable discussion is now available at: http://me.pdr.net/me/public.htm?path=content/journals/m/data/2001/0618/round1.html