To Live and Die

The five men of whom you wrote had fine jobs, substantial incomes and private health insurance prior to their afflictions. Having to fall from societal grace by contracting the most dreaded disease, to be treated like a pariah by family and friends and finally to be subjected to one of the worst, mismanaged welfare systems for health care is just too much for individuals who had lived carefree lives.

Think of the plight of the indigent black, the Hispanic, the white who must depend on this overworked, anachronistic system for all their health care needs from cradle to grave. Think also of the other economically depressed people in the system who no longer get medical attention because funds are diverted from regular medical care to help fight AIDS. Gays appear to have economic clout and militant, political activism to make their cause known. The indigent have no advocates.

OLIVER MCDERMOTT

Torrance