Letter to the Editor: Socialized medicine sounds terrible

Socialized medicine
sounds terrible
Vets’ Hospitals — they are socialized medicine. Some of them are good, some are bad. So are public/private hospitals. Do you want to shut them down?
Medicare — Single pay medical insurance. The government collects the premiums and pays private health insurance companies to handle the claims.
My last skull surgery in 1988 messed me up so I could never work full time again. My Medicare started in 1990. I’ve never had to fight with it to get a claim covered. I choose the doctors I want to see — I don’t even have to have a referral to see a specialist, if I think I need it. It even covered an MRI in Montana. Anywhere I go in the USA I’m covered.
For the first 14 years I had it, I paid in more in premiums than were paid out. At least two of the last five have gone the other way. I’d be willing to pay higher premiums to keep Medicare afloat.
Take a look at these figures:
2008 insurance company CEO compensations:
Aetna - $24,300,112; Cigna - $12,236,740; Health Net - $4,425,355; Humana - $4,764,309; WellPoint - $9,844,212
Interestingly, I couldn’t find the compensation for Anthem BlueCross/Blue Shield, but you can bet it’s just as big.
So when you see your premiums getting bigger and your coverage getting less — guess why. Those big paychecks have to come from someone.
I’m a firm believer that some serious changes need to be made.

Ruth Lehenbauer
Hannibal