Insurance plan’s heavy burden

Re “Democrats go their own way on healthcare,” April 22

In the plan proposed by Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez (D-Los Angeles), the working uninsured -- by far the majority of California uninsured -- would be required to buy private health insurance if their employers opted into the state plan. The employer’s share of the premium cost would be limited by law; employees would have to pay whatever the insurer demanded.

Both Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Nunez would require us to buy private health insurance whether we could afford it or not. We would be forced to buy insurance with the cheapest premiums possible. We would be forced to buy worthless, high-deductible policies and would have to pay thousands of dollars out of pocket before insurance kicked in -- or more likely, go without needed healthcare.

There is no substitute for equal, comprehensive, low-cost healthcare for all delivered by today’s physicians, clinics and hospitals but financed by the state government without private insurers. If Democrats are really going their own way on healthcare, let them stand behind single-payer healthcare: Senate bills 840 and 1014.

MICHAEL LYON

San Francisco

The writer is associated with the California Alliance for Retired Americans.

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When insurers, doctors and others say Schwarzenegger’s plan for universal health coverage will place too big a financial burden on them, what they really mean is the huge profits they make on medical coverage and services will be reduced. The real issue has never been the high cost of medical services but the huge profits made by the medical industry.

The true financial burden has fallen on those of us who pay unrealistic fees for medical insurance and services, co-pays, deductibles and prescription drugs. More than 50% of bankruptcies are because of medical bills, and the U.S. is the only industrialized country that does not offer its citizens universal healthcare coverage.

PAUL PRUSS

Lake Forest