Health industry lobbyists keep claiming to wonder why we need Medicare for All when, they insist, we have such a wonderful system already. Well, here are 12 reasons:

• 9/11 first responders wouldn’t have to beg for health care

• People in horrible accidents wouldn’t have to resort to online begging

• People with diabetes wouldn’t have to risk amputation to save money on insulin

• People with huge medical bills wouldn’t have to file for bankruptcy

• Poor people wouldn’t have to search for a doctor who takes Medicaid

• Doctors, hospitals, etc., wouldn’t have to spend millions of hours dealing with insurance companies

• Americans wouldn’t have to spend millions of hours trying to choose the right Medicare Part D prescription drug plan

• Employers wouldn’t have to spend many thousands of hours deciding what insurance their employees will have to use for the next year

• People wouldn’t have to weigh the need to see a doctor against the need to pay the utility bill, rent, grocery bill…

• People wouldn’t have to wonder for months how much they will end up paying for a visit to the doctor or hospital

• No one would ever again care about “in network” & “out of network”

• No one would wonder how large a rate increase the health insurance companies were going to request each year.

I’m sure most readers will have no trouble coming up with others.

Lee Russ

Bennington, VT