As we look at health care reform in Vermont, people are talking a lot about having to wait to get the care we need and that there will be long lines and rationing. I don’t know what health care system they are living in, but what they are describing sure sounds a lot like the system that we have now. Anybody who is uninsured or underinsured is already waiting and already rationed.

The other thing that I keep hearing is that we need to go slow. We’ve been at it for over twenty years, so how much slower can we go? All of the patchwork that we keep doing just delays the inevitable. It is like patching a dam over and over again as it crumbles. Going slow won’t get us the health care system that we need. It is time to rebuild the whole system and treat it like a public good instead of a commodity.

KEITH BALLEK
Sheffield

Burlington Free Press