To the Editor:
Eivend Boe makes a case for a National Health Service, paid for by taxation and administered by the Government. However one or two points seem to have escaped his notice.
First, with regard to competition, he has overlooked the situation in our neighbor, New Hampshire, where insurance providers are allowed to compete without government interference and where premiums are as much as 70 percent lower than here in Maine.
Second, things are far from perfect in state controlled health schemes. For example in Great Britain a recent decision, made by bureaucrats not doctors, declares that a costly drug shall be withheld from patients with a life expectancy of less than six months. There are many other examples of similar cold blooded responses to the suffering of both young and old, in a country where administrators now outnumber health professionals by a considerable factor.
Perhaps the first country to take control of their health away from its citizens was the Soviet Union. A quick internet check on life expectancy and other vital signs in present day Russia will show how effective government there has been over the long term.
Something must be done, no doubt, but I believe that motivating people to take better care of themselves, to shop around for the best care in a competitive environment will one day prove to be a superior way to ensure the health of the nation.
Above all, the sharp edge of initiative in research will continue to bring us exciting new developments in the field of “wellness”, something even Mr. Boe cannot expect from the dead hand of a self serving bureaucracy.
Bob Howell, Pemaquid
