Healthcare System ConcernsHealthcare System Concerns In an op-ed piece, James W. Slack argues that the United States healthcare system needs significant changes. He cites examples of drugstore deserts, hospital closures, and insurance companies prioritizing profits over patient care. Slack believes that the private sector has failed to provide affordable and accessible healthcare, and that the government should intervene to regulate the industry as a public utility. Another reader, Joseph R. Nobody, expresses concern about the planned closure of Steward hospitals in Dorchester and Ayer. He emphasizes the importance of hospitals in providing essential medical care and criticizes the profit-driven mentality that has led to their downsizing. Nobody suggests that business leaders who lack medical expertise should not be making decisions about healthcare. Dr. Philip A. Lederer joins the chorus of voices calling for a single-payer national healthcare program. He sees the closure of Carney Hospital and Nashoba Valley Medical Center as symptoms of a broken system that prioritizes greed and profit over patient well-being. Lederer urges Americans to demand a single-payer system to address the suffering of vulnerable and marginalized patients.
If we don’t nationalize health care, we should at least tighten regulations
Quite the headline on Sunday: drugstore deserts, Steward Health Care closing hospitals and insurer UnitedHealth Group turning medicine into an “assembly line.” The Globe and sister publication STAT present a compelling argument against turning the health care system over to the private sector, with three examples of companies maximizing profits or executive pay while leaving sick people, especially the poor, behind.
Things have to change. If we continue to fail to nationalize health care, we should at least start regulating the industry as a public utility. Affordable and readily available health care should be considered a basic human right in every developed country in the 21st century. It is clear that the private sector does not see this as their responsibility, and whatever government regulations exist today are not doing their job.
The United States still likes to think of itself as a government of the people, by the people, and for the people. We have a Constitution that was written, among other things, to “promote the general welfare.” Let’s all care enough about our fellow human beings to demand that Congress step up and make affordable health care at least as readily available as electricity or internet access.
James W. Slack
Lexington
Hospitals are not big stores where you hang ‘closed’ signs
News coverage of the planned closure of Steward hospitals in Dorchester and Ayer raised concerns that patients would now have to travel greater distances for medical care (“Steward Closes Carney, Nashoba Valley,” page A1, July 27).
Remember, we are talking about hospitals here, not factories or big stores. The staff is more than just employees. We are talking about doctors who, after a careful selection process, are allowed to go through long, hard years of careful study to do what they are dedicated to: taking care of you and me.
They are assisted by nurses, also skilled, trained and highly skilled medical professionals, who act as the symbol of care and compassion. Then there is the all-important support staff, from administrative to maintenance personnel, who keep things running.
Providing medical care is essential to maintaining the population in the most literal sense, as crucial as food, clothing and shelter. It is therefore heartbreaking to see it succumb to corporate dominance and the associated downsizing, the mentality of market share and profit margins, the priority of profit and loss over life and death.
To complicate matters further, you have businessmen, many of whom don’t know the difference between a butt and an ulna, telling medical specialists what to do.
Joseph R. Nobody
Lynn
Call (again) for a single-payer system
The planned closures of Carney Hospital and Nashoba Valley Medical Center are a symptom of our broken healthcare system, which is built on greed and profit. Americans must speak out and demand that our political leaders implement a single-payer national healthcare program. Until that happens, our most vulnerable and marginalized patients will continue to suffer poor health outcomes.
Dr. Philip A. Lederer
Jamaica Plain
The author is a member of the Physicians for a National Health program.
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