Single-payer works for other countries

The Republicans talk these days about increasing choice in health care and bringing market forces to bear to solve our problems. What a pile of horse manure that is.

What choices do we have? Most of us rely on a Medicare, Medicaid or our employer’s insurance. They tell us what procedures we qualify for and what we pay and usually where we get these services. What are we supposed to do? Shop around for the best deal on an MRI. Maybe someone has a promo code or a coupon that could save us a few bucks. Or we can get a deal on our prescriptions if we just see the right commercial.

The concept is absurd. The insurance companies have no incentive to care about us. The only reason we are not being taken advantage of even worse by our health care and insurance industries is that Medicare pretty much sets the rules and standards and the insurance companies have a tradition of following their recommendations.

At least, if we had a single-payer program, we could unelect those that take advantage of us to line their pockets. This concept seems to work just fine for the rest of the civilized world.

Rick Walker

Snohomish