My Aunt Bessie often prefaced her remarks about a mutual acquaintance with “You couldn’t hope to meet a nicer guy.” Then she would trash him. I can only say about gubernatorial candidate Randy Brock’s health care plan (“Brock lays out plans for health care,” Sept. 9), “You couldn’t hope to meet a sweeter health care plan.”
It is based on the premise that competition in the health care industry is about providing the best service. That is not true; the competition is based on providing the best profits (or, as Wall Street likes to put it, “shareholder value”). As a result, in the states where there are the most insurance companies (Texas) and the most insurance companies per capita (Wyoming), health care outcomes are close to abysmal for the amount spent on insurance.
The only parties who benefit by dumping the community rating (where all pay the same rate) are not the insured young adults, but the insurance companies. Not only are the young healthier and quite unlikely to need medical care (men generally do not even need annual physicals until age 40), but since they change jobs (and lose their coverage) every three years on average, their premiums represent pure profit for the companies.
One would expect a candidate for political office to pledge to protect and empower people, not insurance companies.
CHUCK GREGORY
Springfield