Letter: U.S. has health care priorities out of order

Friday, March 2, 2007 | 7:11 a.m.

Remember UNICEF, the children's fund that we collected money for at Halloween to help underprivileged children around the world? A recent UNICEF study showed that the United States ranked 20th out of 21 countries in a survey of child welfare among wealthy nations.

I had no idea that Poland, the Czech Republic and Hungary were "wealthy nations," but that being said, they're ahead of the United States in caring for the welfare of their children. How embarrassing.

Some of the reasons cited for our poor ranking are the growing disparity between the rich and the poor, the high degree of child poverty in the United States, the lack of health care for children and the high infant mortality rate, where the United States ranks 36th among industrialized countries.

Politicians will always say that we have the world's best health care system. That's because the world's best health care is what they receive. Greed and materialism are becoming a ball and chain to our country.

We have the best form of government the world has ever seen, but our priorities have gone off course. Unfortunately, 46 million Americans are now without health care coverage. Putting forth an effort to make life better for our children, as well as the poor and elderly, will help restore pride in America.

Should we fix the problem ourselves or should we join the list of Third World countries that rely on UNICEF for help?

Phil Ventura, Las Vegas