Copyright 1999 The New York Times Company
The New
York Times
July 19, 1999, Monday, Late Edition - Final
SECTION: Section A; Page 16; Column
4; Editorial Desk
LENGTH: 158 words
HEADLINE: How Profits Affect Patient Care
BODY:
To the Editor:
Is Bob Herbert
(column, July 15) suggesting that money and reform in the health care arena are
mutually exclusive? I contend the two go hand in hand. Our current health care
crisis is occurring not because health maintenance organizations have an
"unconscionable obsession with the bottom line," but because there is a lack of
a free market for health care. We need to place more of an emphasis on money.
Instead of a patients' bill of rights, we need medical savings
accounts. By opening up the health care industry to the wonders of the free
market, patients would truly have the voice in deciding which doctors to see,
which medicines to take and which tests to undergo instead of sitting idly by as
health maintenance organizations and insurance companies try to deny us care.
NICOLE SCHIERECK
Washington, July 15, 1999
The
writer is a research associate, National Center for Policy Analysis.
http://www.nytimes.com
LOAD-DATE: July 19, 1999 
