One bad read on health care solution

After reading Terry Gavin's derision of Al Kirkland's article about reforming the health care system to cover everyone and eliminate the insurance companies' profit, I sure believe that he doesn't know his facts.

He agreed that we need to reform the system and stated that "attacking it as just a private sector problem is illogical and just plain wrong." Of course, that is true. We need it as citizens who want health care for all and don't want to enrich the private insurance companies whose overheads are multiple times higher than Medicare costs. Now there are about 47 million who have no health care and many more who are underinsured.

I very much doubt that he knows "many who are self-insured and when they tell the hospital and doctors they intend to pay cash the cost of the procedure drops by 35-40 percent."

At the end he takes a cheap shot at trial lawyers and states: "They are constantly searching for everyone and anyone they can sue, from hospitals to doctors." I have no idea if Mr. Kirkland is a trial lawyer.

Let us learn the facts of our broken health care system and then try to make health care for all a reality.

Sheila T. Burris

Elgin