The critical state of healthcare

Re “Why healthcare reform fails,” Opinion, Nov. 6

As long as the word “insurance” is a part of the American healthcare system, there will be no real reform. It is immoral and inhumane that we use healthcare as a vehicle to support private industry, specifically the insurance and pharmaceutical industries. These companies earn obscene profits and fat salaries for their leaders, who make huge donations to politicians to ensure their continued financial health.

Susan Guilford

Orange

--

Healthcare is becoming as vital an issue as civil rights was in the 1960s. If you take each of Henry Aaron’s reasons why healthcare reform has failed to date and consider or substitute “civil rights” or “racism” for “healthcare,” the whole piece loses its effect in the wake of history. To wit:

Elites remain deeply divided on what to do, 85% of Americans ... fear change, large-scale civil rights reform is large-scale income redistribution, civil rights reform involves huge financial stakes, the U.S. political system is exquisitely structured to frustrate action on large and controversial matters and racism varies greatly across the United States.

The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. said, “No social advance rolls in on the wheels of inevitability. It comes through the tireless efforts and persistent work of dedicated individuals.” Healthcare reform will be achieved in the United States. Persevere.

Steve Tarzynski MD

Santa Monica