An alternative to health insurance

Patricia Hershwitzky, Las Vegas

Tuesday, April 7, 2009 | 2:02 a.m.

Regarding E.J. Dionne’s column in Monday’s Las Vegas Sun, “Health care reform: Its time is here”:

Please do not give me any more access to health care “insurance”! Americans want reasonably priced health care, period, and those of us who are blessed to have coverage know full well we are being gouged by the middleman — insurance companies. A recent out-of-state bout with strep throat cost me co-pays in excess of $150 from three providers. Enough!

Give me a doctor of my choosing who is willing to accept monthly payments that go into a movable escrow account to cover simple matters. Allow the interest from those multiple accounts to pay for on-site diagnostic equipment. Then provide genuine and affordable insurance for unexpected catastrophic illnesses and accidents.

Of course, I realize that by promoting this metamorphosis in thinking, I’m likely negatively affecting my retirement account (funded through insurance annuities), which relies almost exclusively on insurance companies double-dipping via health billings and auto coverage. However, we may all have to sacrifice to return to justice and truth.