Warning: include(../news_feeder.php) [function.include]: failed to open stream: No such file or directory in /home/pnhpf3a/public_html/capa/phpincludes/left_navigation.php on line 22

Warning: include() [function.include]: Failed opening '../news_feeder.php' for inclusion (include_path='.:/usr/lib/php:/usr/local/lib/php') in /home/pnhpf3a/public_html/capa/phpincludes/left_navigation.php on line 22

Health-care solution

JOHN R. SHEARER, M.D.
Petaluma, CA
San Francisco Chronicle
Letter to the Editor
Tuesday, March 13, 2007

Editor — The contentions in Mike DeNunzio’s March 9 letter (“Walter Reed hypothesis”) need to be addressed. He repeats the propaganda about the generally excellent Canadian health-care system. His description of bed shortages, bureaucracy, long lines and impersonal care seems more like California than Canada.

He says our free-market system of health care is the best in the world. Certainly, for the minority who are not uninsured or underinsured, it’s the best. The World Health Organization, however, ranks the U.S. system 37th in the world, between Slovenia and Costa Rica.

The conditions at Walter Reed Army Medical Center are a reflection of what happens when an administration deliberately under funds a system. Read SB840 — the funding will be more than adequate for high-quality care for everyone in California.

Oh, and by the way; this single-payer bill is not “socialized” medicine; the medical providers will be in private practice, not employees of the state.