Letter: Health care coverage in need of transparency

Sunday, July 1, 2007 | 7:06 a.m.

Michael Moore's current expose about the shortfalls within our current health care system has hit the movie theaters. This is sure to rev up the national debate about health care in America and what, if anything, should be done about it. Moving to a universal single payer full coverage health care system will not, as Hillary Clinton demonstrated 14 years ago, occur rapidly, very easily or maybe at all.

I believe one way to get the public and our elected representatives behind this movement is full disclosure.

Employees in America rarely see the total premium cost of their care and have no real basis for price and coverage comparisons. If the federal government mandated that employers must fully disclose to their employees the total cost of their health care premiums, including their company's tax benefit, then employees would take notice. They just might ask what they are receiving in return and begin to make comparisons.

There is always the fear, sometimes implanted by insurers or employers, that a single payer or universal health care system will not deliver as good a result as we receive today. I'm not sure that Americans are, as a group, receiving that great of care anyway. Just look at all the industrialized countries that have universal coverage. Most of them have better health care outcomes than we do, yet we spend far more money per capita.

Our current hodge-podge of health insurance systems - private, federal, state and local - is inefficient, chaotic and outmoded. We need to change our focus. This is easily done with a universal system that encourages, not discourages, preventive care.

With our current private health care system, right or wrong , some believe that they are receiving better or more extensive care than others. For those who feel they would somehow be disadvantaged by a universal system that provides only "average" care for all, there is nothing that would preclude them or their company from purchasing additional outside coverage. After all, it is the American way.

Richard Rychtarik, Las Vegas