Letter: Health care subject to inequality, as well
Sunday, April 8, 2007 | 7:28 a.m.
I agree with letter writer Richard Mundy's assertion that seat belts and helmets provide safety for the wearer. But I do not entirely agree with his reasoning.
He is right in saying that the taxpayers pick up the bill where insurance leaves off or where the patient simply can't pay. My question is: Why? University Medical Center, the valley's public hospital, is again in debt, with the taxpayers picking up the bill.
Here is the false assumption: Everyone is entitled to the same level of medical care regardless of ability to pay. Under this assumption, we should all be able to drive Hummers, live in multimillion-dollar houses at Lake Las Vegas and be provided with the same goods and services as everyone else.
This is categorically false. Many of us drive older vehicles, live in homes 20 years old or more and live within our means. We are not all entitled to these levels of equality, so why should medical care be any different?
Is it difficult to tell someone in pain or dying that they can't have medical care? Indeed it is. But those people with jobs and health insurance, or who are paying for their care out of their own pockets, are paying even more than they should in order to compensate for many others who aren't paying.
We don't all live on an equal footing and we never will. If people became responsible for themselves, and understood the consequences, then we wouldn't need the nanny laws.
Laura Friedlander, Las Vegas
archive
- Most Read
- Discussed
- Most E-mailed
- Wonder drug for men no success story
- Metro admits to improper release of criminal history data
- CityCenter: One man’s concept of a real city
- If Palin’s book is so bad, then why is it a best-seller?
- Was a foiled bank heist a cry for help?
- Bellfield tolls again for UNLV in 76-71 win over Louisville
- Metro corrections officer remembered for his love of family
- UNLV recalls last year’s close shave at Louisville
- Live game blog: Bellfield, UNLV come through late, upset No. 16 Louisville
- Notebook: UNLV prospect Polee likes what he sees, and hears, at the Mack
Blogs
The Kats Report
If the message is 'rock out,' then KISS is indeed a message band (1 Comment)
Could a savior of shuttered Las Vegas Art Museum be ... Peter Max? (6 Comments)
For Paul Stanley and KISS, rock and roll is not over (6 Comments)
Twenty years ago today, Human Nature took root on the farm (1 Comment)
Robin Leach's Las Vegas Celebrity Watch
Photo Gallery: Donny Osmond’s triumphant return to the Flamingo
The Kats Report
'DWTS' champ Donny Osmond still deft afoot in return to Flamingo (8 Comments)
Politics: The Early Line
Meeting of GOP governors draws challengers, not Gibbons (5 Comments)
Calendar »
- 29 Sun
- 30 Mon
- 1 Tue
- 2 Wed
- 3 Thu
-
Tahoe Takeover at The Bank
The Bank | 10 p.m. to 11:59 p.m.
-
Playboy Club model search
Playboy Club | 10 p.m. to 11:59 p.m.
-
Queen of Queens at Revolution Lounge
Beatles Revolution Lounge | 10 p.m. to 11:59 p.m.
-
Zowie Bowie's Vintage Vegas Show at Monte Carlo
Lance Burton Theater
The Sun
Locally owned and independent for more than 50 years.
Technorati









