Not everyone will get equal health care

Dave Newton, Las Vegas

Sunday, Jan. 23, 2011 | 2:05 a.m.

This is in response to Frank Beaty’s letter in the Sun on Thursday, which finished with the comment “equal access to care should be the right of all Americans.”

Mr. Beaty explained that when he had cataract surgery he had to choose between the best care, which was more expensive, or “good” care, which was less expensive. He felt it was strange for him to have to choose between good results and the best results and asked, “Why can’t we all receive the best results?”

I completely agree that it would be ideal if we could all have the best health care. Unfortunately, that isn’t going to happen. Whatever system we go to, every patient isn’t going to end up with the best doctors. Some will end up with good doctors, some will end up with average doctors and a few will end up with poor doctors.

The issue is who gets to make that choice. In a single-payer system would the patient have the choice or would someone at a government desk be deciding for him? Maybe he would end up with a poor or mediocre doctor. It’s that fear of turning over our health care decisions to government employees that is truly frightening to me.

I don’t think it takes a lot of imagination to see that a single-payer system is not going to provide equal quality care for all Americans; it will just change who decides how care will be allocated. For people who don’t have coverage today, that’s a pretty good deal. For the vast majority who do have coverage, we may come to long for the days of dealing with an insurance company instead of the government.