To the editor:

Cal Thomas’ latest warning (Journal-World, Dec. 2) against government meddling in our lives involves, once again, health care. And again he has a nightmare list of “outrages” populating the current bill. One such horror certain to make us tremble is a “national ID health card.” This dread must be similar to what we feel when we pull out other government IDs: driver’s license, Social Security card, Medicare ID, etc.

Another bête noire is the “rationing of health care.” Apparently Cal is unaware of accounts of $10,000 deductibles (Journal-World, page 7A, Dec. 1) as just one example of health care rationing some face now.

To his credit he does admit that the existing status quo with health care is “unhealthy.” He asks us to reject this bill so we can keep our current “high quality” health care system and simply fix what’s wrong with it. Cal has confused high quality care and coverage.

He has never demonstrated that extending coverage to all would suddenly produce lousy quality of care. He tries to establish this link by quoting from British private foundation documents claiming a million victims of poor care. Well, maybe. Maybe not. This still doesn’t justify leaving over 47 million American citizens with no coverage, regardless of quality.

When those 47 million Americans face permanent health damage from treatable diseases they cannot afford or death from their nonexistent cash-up-front coverage, they can take no solace in Thomas’ call for senators to exhibit “courage and conviction” to vote down the current, and only, health care bill.