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Saturday, September 8, 2012

Health Care Flaws

To the Editor:
Originally published August 27, 2012

Re “A Reluctant Crash Course in Health Insurance 101” (The Agenda, Aug. 21): Suleika Jaouad’s dispassionate account of the added burdens imposed by our fragmented system of health insurance on those unfortunate individuals who become sick is powerful in its lack of sentimentality. With an unconscionable 45,000 excess deaths a year due to lack of health insurance, we remain the only country in the world where getting seriously ill or hurt, as if that weren’t bad enough, significantly increases one’s risk for financial ruin — even with health insurance. More than half of personal bankruptcies in the United States result from medical bills, and of those, 75 percent of the cases are people who had medical insurance when they got sick or injured.

Until the for-profit health insurance industry is replaced by a single-payer national health insurance program, Americans will continue to suffer and die for the sake of excessive corporate salaries and shareholder profits.

Elaine Fox, M.D.
Southampton, N.Y.