Healthcare already in place to serve all

The Reader’s Viewpoint

You’re are not going to convince individuals how bad their private health insurance is until they have something to compare it to. Making major changes to the healthcare system will have to be done in steps, steps that could easily take a generation.

We profess to be a nation with a social conscience. Let us first assure all legal residents nationwide will have access to healthcare. This can be accomplished with agencies already in place, such as Medicare, Medicaid, the VA and the that ACA, all being administered at a federal level assuring consistent application nationwide, i.e., treating everyone equally under the law.

To combine all these agencies under one umbrella would streamline operations by eliminating duplicity of purpose. Given a common mandate to provide quality care for those in need, given the authority to negotiate with healthcare providers, and to allow individuals of means the option to buy into the system at their expense, would create a counter-balance to private insurance agencies.

Is this socialism? Yes. Would it be perfect? No.

Neither socialism nor the free enterprise system has provided adequate healthcare. Each system has its strengths and weaknesses. By combining the two we can offer healthcare to a larger percentage of our population. Needless to say, how to balance these two systems will always be a point of contention. With our inadequacies, we are attempting to overcome the inevitable. Never the less, our first concern must be the quality of life for all of our population.

Jim Tikalsky of Laurel