John McClaughry is at it again (Monday, May 7). He assumes that somehow “ObamaCare,” as he calls it will bankrupt the country, while conveniently forgetting that the present system of private “health” insurance companies is doing just that — and at the same time leaving Americans near the bottom of the heap in terms of longevity compared to other industrialized nations.
Ten and 15 percent annual rate increases are not sustainable, John. He’s perfectly OK with Vermont having 20 different “health” insurance companies sucking money out of Vermonters’ pockets, while Vermonters continue to have little or no access to affordable health care. A prime personal example is a wonderful lady who lived on the mountain behind me and who got food poisoning at a neighbor’s cookout a few years back. She couldn’t afford to go to the doctor and tried to cure herself after the incident. She finally went to emergency when she couldn’t take the pain — she died there in her early 50s. Thanks, John, for your private “health care.” I say it’s time to try something different.
Health care is no different from fire protection. If Rutland used the same idiot system for fire protection that America uses for health care, Rutlanders would have 10 different fire departments, each sucking in as much money as it can, living high off the hog, and then choosing which fires to suppress (probably just the ones in rich neighborhoods). This is no more laughable than America’s present system, which is not “health care,” but rather “health-callousness.”
PHIL STEPHAN
Clarendon