Letter to the editor: Personal health care spending creates responsibility

Carol Turnbull hit the nail on the head (letters to the editor, June 13) – the big problem does occur when others are paying for your health care and not you. First off, those others start to feel as should be expected: responsible, not to mention, worried, taken for a ride when they see you, say, smoking yourself to death, etc. So is this plan really helping anyone? No.

Not sure you got my point, which is that individuals should pay for their own health care. When individuals spend their own money, they act very differently. I see this all the time with people chasing what is free. People expect something for nothing; don’t eat right, even when they know they should. After all, they are going to be “taken care of” either way, right? This is the ditch the government-run health care system has run us into.

Government run health care, just like all entitlement programs, takes away freedoms by micro-managing its people. Take care of the truly needy, but allow people the privilege of learning to be responsible for themselves.

You just don’t get it, Carol. For my part, I’m thinking of climbing into the ”way back machine” and returning to the 1950s when there wasn’t that huge third-party payer sucking up all our money and spitting out all that paper.

Oh, I forgot to mention how costly our health care system and insurance has gotten. And what do we get for it? Patronized and nagged. Yes, I have decided not to participate in all that micro-managing stuff. I’m taking charge of my own health through smart choices, because Obama’s plan is to write me off after age 70 anyway. I’m waiting for my individual deductions for health care … anybody else want that?

Linda Stanton - Woodbury

Tags: letters to the editor, opinion, updates