National health care would cost less

John Nash's column, "Socialized medicine will cost us dearly," in the July 22 edition of Hernando Today, is nothing but cheap fear-mongering and scare tactics. A nationalized health system will save us from higher taxes and higher premiums. It will make us healthier.

While Nash's targets are President Barack Obama and the Democrats, my targets are both the Republicans and the Democrats, and arch-conservative Nash is included in that group as well. The major political parties both take big monies from the corporations and special interests and are making every effort to safeguard their traditional system.

First of all, Obama is no socialist, and he is not even a liberal. He is a centrist, and a lackey for the corporations of America, which includes not only Wall Street and the banking and automobile industries, but also the insurance, pharmaceutical and HMO industries as well.

Obama's "public option" is not government-run. It will fill the coffers of the insurance companies even more with more paying customers. The insurance companies' only fear is there is more competition, but these government monies will once again go into the troughs of big business, just like the banks and financial institutions have shown. Yes, health care is not free, whether it comes from Uncle Sam or our individual pockets. And I daresay that if we ever embrace a truly nationalized health system, which Obama's proposed plans are not, even that would cost taxpayers money. But the costs under a truly socialized health care system would be minimal, much less than what we as individuals and as a country are paying now. So, really, we would be saving money and becoming healthier individually and as a nation.

Yes, employers and workers would pay a tax, but lower than the premiums they pay now, and substantially more benefits would be included (full dental, medical and mental health services), which do not exist under traditional health insurance and Medicare now (plus, exclusions, deductibles, co-payments, etc.). More than $600 billion of an annual $2.3 trillion health bill would be saved by eliminating 1,500 private insurance companies and the paperwork they require. We would save 30 percent of the 35 percent administrative costs, which could be ploughed back into the system to cover all the medical costs of the 47 million people in American now without health insurance. So, this is "freed up money," made available under a national system, but wasted under our traditional system.

A nationalized health system will not cost "those of us who work for living a small fortune." To the contrary, it will save you, and our fellow Americans, lots of money and give them more benefits and make them healthier when having access to both preventative and comprehensive medical, dental and mental health care services.

Nash acknowledged those Canadians "who can afford it," travel to the U.S. for more immediate care. That is the same in our country, which rations health care now. Only people with money, or with coverage, can go to the doctors. The others cannot. That is why 20,000 Americans die each year because they do not have access to health care in America. And that is why 20,000 foreigners, die each day, in the world, due to poverty and illness, brought on by our capitalist system.

Canadians live longer than Americans, and spend one-tenth the money we do. Their optional services may take a little longer, but their health condition is never denied. We die younger and have higher infant mortality despite the fact that Canadians spend a pittance on their national health system, compared to what some Americans and our government spend on health care each year.

People in 27 countries live longer than we do and are healthier than we Americans, so that is why our system is not perfect. There are scores of countries that have a better quality of life because they have national health systems that provide health as a right and not as an economic privilege, as is done in America.

Nash is misleading readers, reinforcing false myths, scaring our elderly over the wrong information. He needs to do his homework better. Right now, our health care system is broken, wasteful, ineffective, selective, unfair, inaccessible and mostly unaccountable. Under a socialized system there will not be higher taxes and people will not have to pay more. In fact, even the employers will save money and not be expected to bear the burden of providing health care. That will be the country's function. Health care will not be rationed like it is now in America, and we will finally end up with a more efficient, economical, responsible and accountable system.

Brian P. Moore

Spring Hill