Editor,
I would like to clear up several damaging misconceptions reported in Wednesday's letter to the editor by Mark Erasmus titled "Universal health care plan supports unhealthy habits."
I strongly suggest that one does some research before writing a letter to the editor so that objective data is used, as opposed to biased opinion claiming to represent the consensus of the American people.
Erasmus writes in his letter, "Would these same good decisions" - quitting smoking and drinking - "be made if all of the rest of us were floating the bill?" We as taxpayers are, in fact, "floating the bill" for those uninsured drinkers and smokers in our own backyard at the publicly-financed UNM Hospital. This bill, in the form of expensive emergency room visits and intensive care unit hospitalizations, comes at a substantially higher cost than if that person had access to a primary care physician who worked toward establishing healthy lifestyles.
A good example of preventive primary care is treating things like depression before they lead to drinking, or implementing smoking cessation programs before an ICU hospitalization for lung cancer is necessary.
Two well-respected Harvard Medical School professors write that Canadians, Australians and Western Europeans spend about half of what we do on health care, enjoy universal coverage and are healthier overall.
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Erasmus encourages others to "say yes to individual choice and no to politicians." This choice is in jeopardy as experts project that if the trend in medical care financing in this country continues, the result will be three or four hospital chains and managed care plans dominating the market, leaving physicians and patients with few options.
As long as profit can be made by an individual's good health, and an even greater profit can be made by the pharmaceutical industry for an individual's poor health, the American people will suffer the consequences.
This has been proven by one study that showed nearly half of all bankruptcies are related to medical reasons or medical debt. Our system does not favor prevention strategies and, for this reason, the public pays much more in the long run for people with a severe disease that did not have access to care when such diseases could have been prevented.
As a future physician, I strongly support individual responsibility in health promotion, but I equally support each person's access to high-quality health care. Furthermore, I would encourage those individuals who are not well informed about health care financing to educate themselves using objective resources such as Physicians for a National Health Plan and the Kaiser Family Foundation.
John Lissoway
UNM medical student
