According to the World Health Organization, the health care system in the United States is 38th, behind France, which is listed as No. 1., Norway and Sweden, Italy, Spain, even San Marino, Andora, Malta, and Singapore.

Reporter T. R. Reid comments that Americans pay more for health care than any other country in the world, and they get less for it.

One reason for this is the competitive nature of many hospitals. If one hospital in a city buys a Magnetic Resonance Image scanner, every other hospital seems to feel that, to stay competitive, they need to have one too.   Since they are very expensive and need to be paid for, they tend to use these scanners for anything and everything from possible stroke to a hangnail!!

I have been told that there are more MRI and CAT scanners in the city of Seattle than in the entire country of Canada. There, if the doctor requires a CAT scan, the patient is sent to the nearest hospital or clinic that has one, rather than every hospital spending millions of dollars on one of these machines when there already is one, a few blocks away.

I have been in favor of a single payer health care system all along. It works well in most other countries and many have gone that way for obvious reasons.

But in the U. S., when any politician, including—especially!—the President (not just Obama. ANY President) even hints at something approaching a single payer health plan, the Right Wingers and Conservatives immediately scream "Socialized Medicine!!" and accuse that politician (including the President, whoever that might be) of treason, and of being a Communist or Socialist.

So the brouhaha about President Obama's attempt to improve the system is nothing new.

Various hospitals and health care facilities simply charge what the traffic (the health insurance companies, mainly) will bear. That also goes for durable medical equipment. I use an electric wheelchair when I travel any distance (polio at an early age affected my legs), and recently I had to have new batteries installed. When I receive the bill from the durable medical equipment store from which I ordered the batteries, I was flabbergasted to find that my insurance company had been billed for all they allow for wheelchair batteries. $300.00! Then, the company billed me for an additional $375.00!!

The insurance company is nicked for something close to the actual cost but padded as much as they dare. Then the patient is stuck for a co-pay charge, there, too, as much as they think they can get away with.

This for a pair of batteries that, if purchased from a regular battery supply store, would cost $150.00 for the pair. They are standard marine batteries, the kind one might use for one's 36 foot Chris-Craft motor launch. The only difference was one set is labeled "Marine battery," the other is labeled "Power wheelchair battery." The specifications and dimensions are identical. Rip-off because it is "Medical Equipment."

I have been in favor of a single payer health care system for as long as I can remember, so, Nobody, this does not indicate "progress" as to my position. That's been my position all along (as an intelligent perusing of what I've been saying all this time) should make abundantly clear.

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By the way, my doctor (cardiologist this morning) said nothing about cancelling me or my insurance. She checked me over (I have a possible problem with one of my heart valves), and told me that everything looks fine so far, nothing to be concerned about, and to come back in six months when she will do a heart scan (NOT with one of the multi-million dollar scanners, but one that will tell her what she wants to know).

Don Firth