We need government to handle health care

To the editor:

I write to respond to John Stossel’s July 22 column “Michael and me.” Mr. Stossel wrote that he wants “the private sector to provide (his) health care” because private companies do it “better and cheaper.” He blames “government mandates, overregulation, and … (the) tax code.” This myth, propounded over and over about so many industries since the Reagan ’80s does not match reality.

The New York Times reported in 2004 that the United States spends 15 percent of GDP on health care (about $2 trillion), more than any other industrialized country. The real difference is not government overregulation but in administrative costs. The New England Journal of Medicine reported in 2003 that administrative costs in the United States are more than $1,000 per capita, while they are only $307 per capita in Canada. In addition, overhead costs for Canada’s government-run system are 1.3 percent, according to the journal, while overhead for private insurance in the United States is 11.7 percent.

How’s that for “better and cheaper”?

Mr. Stossel also writes that “freedom brings anxiety,” which he writes is supposedly balanced in health care by superior rewards. Many people are aware that on any given day more than 40 million people in the United States — almost all of them poor and middle class — have no health insurance. Their anxiety is in no way balanced by superior rewards. But even those with insurance face anxiety without rewards.

Health care is not a commodity. Profit and greed have no place in our health system. We need what Mr. Stossel calls our American “can-do spirit” to create the best single-payer health care system in the world.

Jane Heenan

LAS VEGAS

Insurance policy

To the editor:

While there are many things just plain wrong about John Stossel’s recent column on the Michael Moore movie “Sicko,” the one thing I would like to bring up is his criticism of Social Security. He rightly claims that Social Security is underfunded, but fails to say why it is underfunded, giving the impression that it’s just another government program that doesn’t work.

Social Security is underfunded because of the constant borrowing (stealing) of its funds.

Social Security is not so much of a retirement account as it is an insurance policy against poverty. Government shouldn’t “just get out of the way,” Mr. Stossel. It was put in place to protect us from becoming a nation of the very rich ruling over the very poor. It’s there to create and protect the middle class.

Vicki Linkin

LAS VEGAS

Subhuman

To the editor:

Your front-page story Wednesday on the reputation of pit bulls was quite illustrative of how humans debase themselves in their cruelty to vulnerable animals. Michael Vick’s indictment is a sickening reminder of the criminal subculture of so many athletes.

Mr. Vick may have distinguished himself on the football field, but his recent indictment for violating federal laws against dogfighting manifests what a subhuman he really is. To enjoy watching dogs suffer and kill each other — and his alleged actual participation in the strangling, hanging and electrocution of dogs — reveals a psychopathic penchant for sadism.

In the past, Mr. Vick got into trouble — and paid a $10,000 fine — for making obscene gestures toward fans. He’s also been sued for infecting a woman with venereal herpes. He is far, far from the “clean-cut American” guy image.

Paula Stone

HENDERSON

Wrong country

To the editor:

In response to Tuesday’s letter from Dave Hanley headlined, “Iraq conflict”:

Invading other countries that did not attack ours should not be optional, as the author implies. There is no room in the Constitution for embarking on foreign adventures just for the sake of them.

And how about the Wahhabi sect of Islam? It has been developed in Saudi Arabia — not in Iraq, not elsewhere in the Islamic world. If Mr. Hanley is convinced that our enemies today “are the Wahhabis” he should have said that we have invaded the wrong country.

Radu D. Urma

LAS VEGAS

Gaming tax

To the editor:

I noticed that the casino operators have recently begun running television ads which say that 30 percent of all funds for education, schools, etc. come from gaming.

But shouldn’t their contributions be more in keeping with gaming’s percentage of the overall profits generated by all businesses in Nevada? I’m guessing that up to 80 percent of the profits generated by all businesses in Nevada come from gaming.

And you wonder why we have all the problems we do with education? Teacher shortages, bus driver shortages, etc. Come on, let’s get these folks to kick in a truly “fair share.”

Vince DeMattia

LAS VEGAS