Health Care Needs

The Times (Oct. 31) reported that heart patient Stephen Regalado had died because he lacked $18,000 of an estimated $50,000 bill to pay for a heart transplant. UCI medical staff had already reduced the “usual and customary” fee of $200,000 for such a procedure and had volunteered their own time and services to Regalado.

Regalado’s tragic death at age 23 serves to underscore the crying need for some sort of national health care plan in the United States for those who are unable to afford any kind of health insurance.

Of all the so-called “industrialized” nations on the face of this planet, only two lack any form of substantive national health insurance: South Africa and the United States. That’s embarrassing.

At a recent press conference, President Bush managed to pile humiliation upon embarrassment. When asked why the government was dragging its feet on an effective catastrophic health care bill, Bush insulted the medical profession in one of our nation’s closest, most loyal allies, Canada.

He’s apparently unaware that several large corporations in this country are studying Canada’s medical care system with an overview to bringing the outrageous price for health care in this country under control--and that might include a national health care plan, whether Bush and the AMA like it or not.

AL YBARRA,

President

UAW Local 887

Anaheim