All of the major industrialized nations in the world have some iteration of single-payer health care. The cost per capita is on average less than half of what we pay in this country for our care that is rationed by greedy insurance and pharmaceutical companies. The coverage is not “rationed” as was previously described in Veronique de Rugy’s recent column.

In Germany you may have to wait a year to have a knee replacement performed, but your hospital stay will be two weeks, not 3 days, and then you will be transferred to a rehabilitation hospital for TWO MONTHS, and it is all paid for. This is how Germany and many other countries get better surgical results at half the cost.

Yes, your taxes will go up, but there will no longer be money taken out of your pay for health care that is used to run ads on television to sell drugs that you have never heard of before. And you will no longer have to worry about going bankrupt in medical debt. For half the cost per capita with better outcomes, it is time for America to jettison private insurance companies that deny our care and it is time to have our medications covered rather than denied.

DAVID AMBROSE, M.D.

Williamsport

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