Health Care Reform

* In response to James P. Pinkerton’s Column Right (June 17) about health care:

I tend to agree with him until the last paragraph. He drew an analogy between the movie “Jurassic Park” and the Reagan Administration attempts at controlling Medicare costs. So far so good.

Then he put forth as a solution Sen. Dan Coat’s and Rep. Cliff Stearn’s IRA-type plans for health care. He says this will enable patients to run the system. There everything falls apart.

When will people realize that health care delivery is a monopoly, controlled by insurance companies, hospitals, doctors and pharmaceutical firms? The only way to deal with a monopoly is by government control. In addition, how can a person who works 30 hours a week at, say, $5.50 an hour and who has to support himself set up an IRA health plan?

I totally agree with the New England Journal of Medicine, which advocates a single-payer Canadian-style system.

ROBERT C. LANPHIER

Santa Monica