Why Can’t We Get Care We’ve Been Paying for?

In “Lost Health Insurance Deduction Is a Bitter Pill for Self-Employed” (Sept. 7) contained the astounding information that corporations tax-deduct 100% of the cost of providing insurance for their employees. Self-employed persons were allowed a 25% tax deduction, which costs the Treasury $500 million a year. Expanding that to 100% would cost $2.5 billion a year.

So the message is loud and clear: Who has been footing the bill for health care in America? Include Medicare, Medicaid, health care research, medical school subsidies, other health care tax deductions, and you can readily see that our federal government pays most of the $1 trillion to support our health care industry. So if Americans are paying for all that health care, why can’t we get what that $1 trillion should buy?

We must ask the health insurance companies who spent our own premium dollars to defeat any attempt at a health care reform program in Congress. What a world.

That is why it is most important we address this major problem of who pays and who profits from health care.

HARRY WALD

Westlake Village