Is Health Care as Bad as It Gets?

I hope the response of movie audiences truly reflects public opinion. A scene in “As Good As It Gets” shows the plight of 7-year-old Spence, who has severe asthma but whose only available treatment for his attacks comes via repeated frantic runs to the emergency room.

Jack Nicholson, in the role of benefactor, sends rescue in the form of a pediatric allergist. Helen Hunt as the anguished mother who has never even been told of preventive treatments such as skin tests and desensitization explodes with relief: “No more of that [expletive] HMO.” At which the theater audience broke into spontaneous clapping and cheering.

I saw the movie in Irvine, but I am told by friends and relatives that the same outburst has occurred at the same spot in the movie in Los Angeles and as far as Detroit. If there is such widespread distaste and distrust of a medical delivery system, can it really represent the medical path of the future? So much for HMO’s self- proclaimed 90% approval ratings. That audience voted with its hands and its lungs.

DR. ARTHUR D. SILK

Garden Grove