Health care is one of several crucial issues impacting the quality of life in the United States. As so often happens, the “ranters and chanters” occupy much of the news space, while serious discussion of key components of the problems of uninsured Americans goes unnoticed.

I believe that Americans need to arm themselves with unbiased information on health care around the world and then demand their elected senators and representatives dispense with obstructive partisan politics that continually undermines the ability of our nation to pass effective and needed legislation. One book I have just finished reading “The Healing of America: A Global Quest For Better, Cheaper, and Fairer Health Care” by T.R. Reid, is dedicated to President Dwight D. Eisenhower and offers a great deal of solidly researched information in the field of health care insurance systems. Look around for additional information.

Do not allow the vitriolic nature of partisan politics to control legislative decisions. The leverage that lobbyists currently wield in our federal government needs to be curtailed. Several key quotes from T.R. Reid’s book that I will share are:

n “Government and academic studies report that more than 20,000 Americans die in the prime of life each year from medical problems that could be treated, because they can’t afford to see a doctor. �- Hundreds of thousands of Americans go bankrupt every year because of medical bills.”

n “Most rich countries have better national health statistics �” longer life expectancy, lower infant mortality, better recovery rates from major disease �” than the United States does. Yet all of the other rich countries spend far less on health care. ...”

n “We’ve created a health care system that leaves millions of our fellow citizens out in the cold. Beyond the issue of coverage, however, the United States also performs below other wealthy countries in matters of cost, quality and choice.”

n “In 2000, when a Harvard Medical School professor working at the World Health Organization developed a complicated formula to rate the quality and fairness of national health care systems around the world, the richest nation on earth ranked 37th. That placed us just behind Dominica and Costa Rica, and just ahead of Slovenia and Cuba.”

This is a moral question America must address because we are the only industrialized country that does not provide health care for all its citizens.

Sandra K. Garner

North Bend