Health Costs Rising, Coverage Falling

Re “Report Urges U.S. to Work On Better Health Coverage,” Jan. 15: I was disappointed to see Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson’s response to the recent Institute of Medicine report calling for health insurance coverage for all Americans by 2010. As quoted, his response was: “It’s not realistic. I don’t think, administratively or legislatively, it’s feasible.” Yet the goal of universal coverage by 2010 is included in Thompson’s own department’s Healthy People 2010 objectives.

The Institute of Medicine, chartered by Congress to advise the nation, was certainly correct when it stated in its report that federal leadership is needed to reach this critical goal. With more than 40 million Americans lacking health insurance coverage, that leadership is needed now more than ever.

Alan Weil

Director, Assessing the

New Federalism, Urban

Institute, Washington

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Re “More Workers Are Likely to Retire Without Company Health Benefits,” Jan. 15: What I don’t understand is this: Why isn’t anyone angry about health insurance premiums having risen by well over 10% “each year” for the last three years? Why are our politicians not screaming about it? Could it be that most of them have received a few too many campaign dollars from insurance companies?

Our system of private health insurance has failed us miserably. We need to move to a nonprofit cooperative model of health insurance, or to a government-run insurance system, or a combination of those. The overhead for Medicare is only 3%, compared with 14% for private insurance. Some things are too important, too essential, to suffer the overhead of large profits.

Alex Murray

Altadena

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At least people who work to 65 have Medicare to rely on. My small business was hit by Blue Cross/Blue Shield of New Jersey with a 26% increase this year. That is on top of an identical 26% increase one year ago. Those increases are across the board, for the entire state, not just for my company.

No legislature, federal or state, is doing anything to alleviate medical costs. The only considerations are shifting the funding burdens from one group to another. Calls for “universal health care” are exactly that: shifting the funding burden but making no effort to control costs. Human nature being what it is, anything that is “free” is always abused. The only recourse then is rationing.

I would be most grateful for some help controlling costs. I don’t want someone else to pay for my health care. I want my health-care costs to be affordable.

Frank Natoli

Newton, N.J.

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There are monumental changes occurring in the country regarding jobs and health benefits. Those of us who are over 40 grew up with a strong manufacturing base, good jobs that came with security and a good benefits package that provided for quality health care. In our lifetimes we are watching the demise of all of that, and more, as manufacturing goes overseas and job security goes with it. There is a health-care crisis going on in this country that is affecting us all, and burying our heads in the sand will not make it go away. We need information to make the best decisions possible.

It is time we stopped settling for the best candidate from a bad bunch. It is time we stood up and said “enough already” about the “us versus them” mentality that both Democratic and Republican politics are guilty of. It’s not just about Iraq, 9/11 or the economy. It’s about our lives, stupid.

Lynn Zook

Valencia