To the editor:

Here we go again, the government can do it better and more efficiently than the private sector – or so postulates the letter in Wednesday’s Journal-World concerning health care. Big leap! Is there any hard data?

Foreign nations that have pursued this course report mixed results. Care is more generally available but the quality is impacted if in no other way then long waiting lines for routine procedures. As to real costs – government’s costs have always been difficult to pin down.

We do have examples in our own country. I have first-hand experience with both of our large systems. I find the quality of the people in the military medical system and the VA system remarkably good. However, I find them beleaguered. I remember the monthly call to the allergist when I was young. There were so many monthly appointment slots and they would become available at a set time. You called until you got through and hoped there was a slot left. I remember waiting a long time. There are similar challenges today in scheduling VA care.

The recent findings by reputable groups on the inadequacy of these two systems would seem to strongly buttress my anecdotal observations. The fact that these inadequacies have existed for my entire lifetime would, I suggest, indicate the need for great caution. Bush didn’t do it! Health care systems governed by the marketplace are certainly not in any way perfect. Will health care systems governed by political dictate be better? Experience says no!

George Lippencott,

Lawrence