Leech Removal 

Editor:

Emily Dalton's article, "The Insurance Leech" (June 19), makes it abundantly clear that our health care "system" is broken. And even with "Obamacare," only a few Band-Aids are going to relieve some of the pain. But until profit is taken out of delivering health care, the bottom line will always be money and not people's health. Taking out profit, removing costs of promotion, corporate reward and unnecessary bureaucratic procedures (as Dalton experiences) is the only sustainable way to reduce costs and focus on people.

People in the state of California should be aware of a solution that has been waving its hand for over a decade. A plan similar to the single-payer program in Canada and in almost all modern, industrialized countries has been before our Legislature and was twice passed only to be vetoed by our former governor Schwarzenegger. It is called California One Care and its proponents are still working on delivering that logical and workable solution to the outrageous health care conundrum that Dalton documents in her own work.

Everyone should familiarize themselves with this time-tested solution by checking out the website CaliforniaOneCare.org, supporting it and telling others there IS in fact a way out.

Patty Harvey, Willow Creek

Editor:

In response to the cover story ("Bait and Switch," June 12) and the doctor's article in the following issue about Anthem Blue Cross ("The Insurance Leech," June 19), my proverbial blood is boiling! It seems to me that when a business lies to its customers and has an extremely harmful financial effect, that is considered FRAUD! When fraud is committed then it should be investigated and tried in a court of law.

This points to the issue of corporate personhood but even goes beyond that. When people commit fraud and they are found guilty, they go to jail. When corporations (mostly large ones) have fraudulent and grossly negligent practices, if anything happens, the most they usually suffer is a fine. No one goes to prison and they are not pressured to change or shut down. So this is beyond corporate personhood. It is actually corporate hegemony. They have all the rights of a citizen and almost none of the liabilities.

The doctor is right on in her article. Under our current profit system for health care, no matter what laws are passed to regulate the insurance companies, they somehow find a way to gouge us and make money. Many of us knew that when Obama was negotiating the Affordable Care Act that he really blew it by not offering a public option. This proves again that as long as corporate profit trumps human rights, as it does in our country, this type of outrageous sham will continue ad nauseam.

We need a single-payer, not-for-profit insurance system. And corporations like Anthem Blue Cross need to be investigated and prosecuted for their crimes. They need to be dismantled. They need to be held accountable.

Lynn Kerman, Eureka