Editor:

Robert Paul’s letter to the editor (“Health care article ignorant,” Sept. 22) is a great example of one of the biggest problems in the health care debates. Name-calling and alarmist threats are the focus instead of facts. Calling Whitney Fitts an “ignoramus” and threatening that “people like you” are going to destroy our Constitution is a response that I’d expect from a child, not an adult. Grow up and argue the facts!

Nothing is more important than our health, it’s true. So why do people insist on refusing to provide an important, vital service to those who can’t afford it? No one should go bankrupt or not get health care because of high medical costs. Americans have an inalienable right to live (check out the Declaration of Independence if you disagree). Insurance companies are denying that right by refusing health care.

Paul doubts private insurance companies will be able to compete against a public health plan, yet we have examples of private industry surviving (and thriving) against government-run programs; NASA and Boeing work together on aeronautics research and are able to benefit from the research of each other. What about the U.S. post office and its private competitors UPS and FedEx? The only way private health insurance companies would fail against a public health plan is overpricing or low quality. Private insurance companies are worried. They should be8212;the current system is terrible!

I have friends and relatives who are unable to get important medications and care because they lack the necessary insurance (thanks to pre-existing conditions), so their ailments get worse, increasing the need for medical care. It’s a downward spiral, and sad to watch. What makes me “good” enough to receive health care but not someone else? There is no small print in the Declaration of Independence that says, “as long as you can afford it.”
Brittany Green,