Letters, The New York Times, January 29, 2012
To the Editor:
Ezekiel J. Emanuel chooses to assign liberals with controlling costs in health care, when he should be waving his finger at the health care sector. When “skyrocketed” health care costs come up, profit never makes it into the discussion or calculations.
Dr. Emanuel should remember, too, that many liberals wanted the cost-saving, improved Medicare-for-all system to be included in Senator Max Baucus’s committee hearings. Sadly, the cabal made sure that its proponents got no seat at the table.
H.R. 676, the Expanded and Improved Medicare for All Act, would have cut out unnecessary administrative costs, given Americans real choice in their health care, and dissolved the employment-benefits contract that keeps us an indentured labor force. These are factors that both liberals and conservatives should be able to support.
BARBARA COMMINS
San Francisco, Jan. 22, 2012
The writer is a registered nurse.
To the Editor:
Ezekiel J. Emanuel suggests that liberals “ignore costs.” He doesn’t seem to recognize that many conservatives oppose the payment reform proposals in the Affordable Care Act. Remember the outcry about “death panels”?
Moreover, it should not be a given that insurers should continue to consume a large fraction of the health care dollar.
There are many good options for payment reform not included in the health care law. We need a wider discussion on how care is paid for, and how everyone can have access to care in a way that is more efficient, safer and better.
Our government should not write off the possibility of single-payer (which it has so far, largely because of conservative opposition). Those are liberal ideas, and they do not mean that costs should be ignored.
BRUCE L. WILDER
Pittsburgh, Jan. 22, 2012
The writer is a neurosurgeon and a lawyer.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/30/opinion/health-costs-regardless-of-your-politics.html