To the editor:

The week of March 22-28 marks the seventh annual staging of Cover the Uninsured Week. This nationwide effort aims at getting leaders to recognize the need for health coverage for all Americans. Numerous health care organizations will be sponsoring forums in our area (www.covertheuninsured.org).

This event, commemorating the national embarrassment of our health care system, is no cause for celebration. While almost one in three Americans lack health insurance for at least a portion of the year, those of us with health insurance are not celebrating too loudly either, given rising premiums, larger co-payments of all kinds, increasingly restrictive coverage and wildly divergent quality of care. The good news is that this year there stands a real chance for meaningful health reform at the national level, as members of both parties realize that our system needs to change in order to help our economy grow.

Unfortunately, many of our elected officials in Topeka appear utterly tone-deaf to this discussion, rejecting or diluting even the modest proposals that pass for health reform in our state. What they seem unable to realize is that future financial and social costs of doing nothing far exceed what we now pay. This may mean little to elected officials whose sole vision is to reduce the role of government, but this week gives us another opportunity to tell them that it means a lot to those of us for whom the promise of quality, affordable and accessible health care is very real.

Michael Fox,
Lawrence