To the Editor:
In response to Steve Chambers’ letter March 15, “The Green Mountain Scare”:
Dear Steve: If Green Mountain Care is scary, what word would you use to describe our current health-care system? The term “health care” in this country has sadly become an oxymoron. Our health care does not represent the values of decent Americans.
If you look at the chart from the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development published in the National Geographic, I think you will agree that keeping the status quo in this country is unacceptable. The very system that is supposed to keep us healthy is obese — obese with greed.
This is not a partisan issue. The current system robs from everyone without prejudice.
It is not just the patients who are unhappy with the status quo; the medical community is fed up as well. Doctors no longer trust the scientific research because they know it is distorted by profit motives.
As a taxpayer, I want to know that my money is being used for research based on truth. Currently, my tax money is being used to pay for expensive advertising campaigns, expensive lobbyists and unnecessary lawsuits. None of those activities benefit individual or community health. On the contrary, they lead to lack of honest information.
I also want fairness. Allopathic medicine is not the only kind of medicine. Naturopathic medicine has been around much longer than allopathic medicine and deserves equal status.
Who is responsible for getting the tremendous amount of waste and fraud out of our current system? Who is responsible for improving the scandalous infant mortality rate in our country? Not to mention a very scary increase in autism rates? Japan and Sweden refuse to vaccinate children under the age of 2. Their scientific research (less influenced by profit) demonstrates that risks related to vaccination outweigh any benefits before age 2.
Vermonters have an opportunity now to get educated about health care and turn around an ailing system. I invite everyone to do their homework and add their voice to this debate.
Rachel Chevalier
Stowe
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