U.S. Lagging in Health-Care Delivery

Since none of the actual health-care providers are getting any of the increases and, in fact, are often being reimbursed at a lower rate for their services, one wonders where the money from the escalating premium is going [“Health Insurance Rate Hikes Expected,” June 18].

Perhaps a clue may come from the more than 40% rise in profit during the first quarter of this year alone reported by WellPoint Health Networks Inc.

Yet insurers seem to have as much social responsibility in rendering more people uninsured by jacking up their premium as the former Enron executives in decimating their employees’ retirement assets.

It will take a major step if we want to prevent this crisis from becoming a health-care 9/11. Only by returning the responsibility for health-care choices to the individual can we ever hope to control health-care costs.

Instead of having employers shouldering most of the cost for health care, Congress should consider passing laws to allow all health-care expenditure after the first $1,000 to be tax deductible for those who earn more than twice the poverty income level and to provide a maximum of $5,000 annually in tax credit for those whose income falls below this threshold.

Our current system is unwieldy, unfair and inefficient. It is unwieldy because it is too complicated and costly. It is unfair because it forces the insured to subsidize the health care of the rising pool of uninsured. It is inefficient because every health dollar must pass through several hands and melts away faster than the proverbial ice cube.

We may be the world leader in health-care innovation and technology, but we shall forever remain a world lagger in health-care delivery if we don’t do something drastically different soon.

Dr. John T. Chiu

Newport Beach