Those Who Lack Health Coverage

How bad does it have to become before we have a national health plan? After reading two stories you ran on July 16, I was absolutely outraged.

The first article concerned the parents of Jonathan Weston, 23 months old, who along with two other toddlers wandered into a back yard swimming pool in Tustin. One child died, and Jonathan and the other child sustained severe brain damage. The parents had to have a yard sale because, even though they have health insurance, the catastrophic part of the policy covers them to $1 million and the $1 million will be used up within the year. No family should have to have that worry--they have enough stress just coping with having a child who will have to receive care for the rest of his life.

Story No. 2 (Commentary) concerned Juan Antonio Jimenez of Orange County, who was struck by a car in Brawley. The hospital where he was taken could not care for him properly, but because he had no insurance, nine other hospitals that were contacted said they were unable to take him. His suffering lasted 20 days, and his family had to bury him after he died of gangrene. Can you imagine? In this day and age, a man died of gangrene. This is treatable. This is a sin against humanity.

What good is all our medical technology if it isn’t available to all of our people? I can’t fathom why, with all the brains in our country, we can’t glean from the other Western industrialized nations who have had national health plans in place for many years the best of them all and apply it to our own.

I am employed in a hospital. I don’t expect coverage to be free; I know what tremendous costs we are talking about. Good health is not a privilege; it is a right--especially in a country that at the first opportunity praises itself for its achievements in the high-tech health field. What good is it to have the finest if it isn’t available except to the special few?

D. WELCH

Cypress