To the editor:

As far as I can tell from news reports, health care “reform” is mostly “more of the same.” Twelve million of our citizens will be left without health insurance. Overhead expenditures will continue to account for nearly 50 percent of money paid in premiums.

There are few incentives for insurers to focus on maintaining subscribers’ health and preventing illness. Expenditures will continue upward, although new taxes will cover government’s increased share.

There is a simpler way to achieve better results: Require that insurers take all applicants, regardless of physical condition or history. This would do two things. It would cut out much of the administrative overhead, significantly reducing costs of insurance. Further, when insurers must accept all applicants they will, sooner or later, become interested in programs to keep those insured as healthy as possible.

We could achieve these results through a variety of approaches. We could maintain the present private and public mix. We could adopt a government-administered Medicare for everyone. We could even follow the British system, expanding the Veterans Administration health system to cover everyone. The one constant is that everyone must be included!

Lobbyists for private insurers will probably argue that their profits will plummet. They now claim only 2 percent profits. When much of the administrative overhead costs are gone, very likely profits will inch upward. After health maintenance programs are in place, profits may inch upward again.

Reform is when everyone is insured, and has full access to health care!