Choices and Costs in Health Care

The final paragraphs of your excellent series on health care choices and costs lay down the challenge for far-reaching interventions in the way we finance and deliver health care, a call for action that is supported by the overwhelming majority of Americans.

In California, 77 organizations, as diverse as the American Cancer Society, the California Nurses Assn., the Congress of California Seniors, the NAACP, and many local grass-roots groups, have united in a coalition called Health Access, which is dedicated to universal, affordable health care for all Californians. When we spend so much for so little, when the system suffers simultaneously from so much bloat and so much strain, when none of us can feel secure about meeting our health care needs, and when health care expenditures increasingly divert our economy from other important priorities, it’s time for significant change.

There are uniquely tailored solutions which blend the best of the health care system with features from other industrialized nations’ systems to meet the needs of Californians by preserving choice and achieving comprehensive, universal, affordable benefits.

The difficulty is not the architecture, but the political will. The ballot, for better or worse, will probably be where solutions--or so-called solutions--will be found.

For those who want to make sure that the average citizen’s voice is heard loud and clear, please get in touch with Health Access.

MARYANN O’SULLIVAN

Executive Director

LYNN KERSEY

Los Angeles Coordinator

Health Access of California

San Francisco