To the editor:

Why do some people favor corporate health care in the United States so adamantly when our government could run it more efficiently and at less expense?

This “sacred cow” in our society may have something to do with the myth and hope that anyone can strike it rich. We esteem the wealthy while ignoring the overall results and the suffering in our present health care system. The continued reverence for private enterprise in our health insurance delivery, coupled with our fear of “big government,” has left us with a cumbersome, fractured system in which 47 million Americans (one in six) are without affordable health care! That’s possibly 16,000 people in Douglas County!

Evidence is available that government-operated financing of health care programs in other developed countries results in better health on average and a longer life span than in the United States. Programs and health statistics vary from country to country, but overall achievement is ahead of the United States.

We are supporting inefficient private health insurance to provide wealth to corporate managers, despite substantial evidence that a government program, such as Medicare, can provide better health care for all our citizens for less money. Almost one-third of our total health care expenditures in the United States go to administrative costs – not medical care!

Are health insurance and pharmaceutical executives really entitled to the millions they receive?

Mark Larson,

Lawrence