In response to the Sunday editorial, “Don’t play politics with crucial hospital project”: As a resident of Snohomish County, I am alarmed at Providence Everett Medical Center’s expansion plans.

Nobody is opposed to hospital expansion per se, but it is irresponsible to allow the hospital to expand to a capacity that is far beyond what is necessary to provide quality, affordable health care to our growing population.

If “playing politics” means preventing a hospital from creating over-capacity in the system, and unnecessarily driving up health care costs for the residents of this county, then so be it.

The evidence regarded by the Department of Health strongly suggests that the planned PEMC project will drive up health care costs for everyone in Snohomish County, making it more difficult for the insured as well as the uninsured and underinsured to access health care.

PEMC’s expansion plans are enormous and very expensive, and all of us will be paying for this expensive project for years to come. We should fully understand what we are doing before we commit ourselves to paying for this level of expansion.

Julie Hauf

Edmonds