Many Are in Need of Health Insurance

People with AIDS are not the only ones who find it difficult, if not impossible, to obtain medical insurance, “AIDS Disclosure by Ashe Putting Heat on Insurers” (April 16).

For example, my daughter, who was born with Down’s syndrome, is unable to obtain private medical insurance because Down’s is an uninsurable “prior condition.”

Legislators and government workers, including the President, all receive health insurance that is, at least in part, at taxpayers’ expense. They are not told that they are uninsurable. Whatever is good enough for the President and other government employees should be available to the people who put them in office and pay their salaries. Shouldn’t all citizens be entitled to equal protection?

Somehow the idea that public officials are supposed to serve the people has been perverted, and the people have been turned into the servants of the public officials. The time for all citizens to have the same medical insurance coverage as their public servants and at the same cost is long past due.

HAROLD FRIEDMAN

Los Angeles