Letter to NY Times re health care for all.

I was reading an article in the NY Times this morning, and became offended by the lack of truth in what the Republicans said about the health care for all proposal. According to the paper, Mr. Frank I. Luntz. an expert on the language of politics and an adviser to the Republican party had criticized the Democrat's health care for all plan. Here is the letter I wrote to the Times:

The N.Y. Times 5/14 article “Democrats To Develop Plan to Sell Health Care” should have been titled “Republicans Develop Plan to Scuttle Health Care for All.” The Republican message is that “the Democrats want to put Washington politicians in charge of your health care” and that their plan would “deny people treatments they need and make them wait to get the treatments they are allowed to receive.”
The first statement is simply untrue and the second describes what happens now in our current for profit health care insurance system. The proposed Democratic health care system would cover everyone—health care for all. A patient would be able to choose any plan they want. The big “for profit” health care insurance companies realize that they would lose patients and profits in such a system. They have bought our legislators so that they will oppose the Democrat plan.

I wrote this letter to make the point that under the current for profit health care system, all of the issues around not getting proper and timely care already exist. Mr. Luntz and advised the Republicans to make statements that would imply that these issues don't occur under the current system, and would only happen once the Democrat's plan was enacted. As a biomedical ethicist and a physician, I feel it continues to be my duty to clear the rhetoric from the situation rather than add more to it. To that end, I'm going to an ethics meeting tonight! More as this continues to develop...