The Healthcare System Needs Proposition 72

In its Oct. 9 editorial (“No on Healthcare ‘Remedy’ ”), The Times gives contradictory reasons for opposing Proposition 72: first, that the measure does so much that it would damage the state economy; and second, that the measure does so little that we should reject it and wait for a bigger reform.

Denying workers basic health insurance encourages them to defer medical care until conditions become critical. Deferred medical care poses risks for the spread of disease and maximizes costs by focusing on more expensive treatment instead of less expensive prevention.

Permitting large employers to externalize healthcare costs is bad medicine and bad economics. Increasing the number of workers with health insurance would decrease pressure on the state’s emergency medical system, which is the provider of last resort for the uninsured. It also would reduce the economic loss attributable to illness.

Waiting for comprehensive national reform may sound plausible to those who already have health insurance, but it is not a good idea for those who lack it.

Proposition 72 doesn’t solve the entire national healthcare crisis. But it is a step in the right direction.

Jeff Book

Beverly Hills

*

I agree with you that the Proposition 72 “solution” won’t work. But I will vote for it anyway. Why? Because mandated employer coverage may force the Chamber of Commerce and the L.A. Times to take a longer look at the best alternative -- the single-payer system embodied in Senate Bill 921.

A single-payer system cuts administrative costs by more than two-thirds. That’s billions of dollars. It does that by ending the multiple sources of paperwork in the current system.

A single-payer system, gathering information from throughout the state, would be able to identify fraud, over-utilization, price gouging, etc. It would be able to negotiate bulk prices with pharmaceutical and equipment companies.

It would be able to identify and enforce the best practices. Above all, it would return the delivery of medical care to doctors with real concern for patients.

George Delury

Carpinteria

*

My beautiful 26-year-old daughter died because she had no health insurance. She had money to live on, but not enough money for any surgery. I grieve every day. She was my daughter, my best friend and an awesome individual. Please make sure that this never happens to another person. I want society to remember my child, Leslie Dawn Woolfolk, a beautiful young woman who could get no help from her government.

Cheryl Irvine

Los Angeles