Letter - Avoid health-care abyss

Talk about it

To the editor:

Since Mr. Obama has been attacking our current health care system, I would like to step forward in defense of our health care professionals. After 30 years in sales and management with companies that invent and market highly technical operating room devices, I have seen much of the best. The very best of humanity exists in our doctors, nurses and hospital staff professionals. My experience focused on the surgeons, operating room nurses and technicians who face life-and-death situations on a daily basis. I have observed over 3,000 major operations, yet I cannot think of one situation where I saw anything but the most selfless, dedicated patient care, often in the face of difficult and exhausting circumstances.

Mr. Obama has said our system has waste, inefficiencies, and that doctors will remove tonsils or perform amputations that are not necessary. While these and other Obama claims are certainly unbecoming of a president, they are absolute proof that Mr. Obama has no idea what our American health care system is all about.

America’s problems are not with the care – the problems are with the payment for care. They can be fixed best by eliminating malpractice lawsuit abuse, expanding insurance company availability nationwide, offering more choice of coverages, eliminating government mandates, eliminating care for illegal residents, stopping the abuse of our emergency rooms by welfare recipients, and educating the public that each citizen must shoulder the responsibility of providing for their own insurance coverage.

More government involvement will drive our excellent system into the same abyss where we now find Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, the war on poverty, and any other wasteful, inefficient and ineffective government program that has been forced upon our society.

Tom Lund

Longville, MN

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