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