Fox News: Killing viewers with lies

Letter to the editor in the NY Times:

To the Editor:

I find shocking Ross Douthat’s conclusion that “whatever everyday health insurance coverage is worth to the sick person, a cure for a heretofore-incurable disease is worth more.” 

Really? For millions of people, do family security, reduced depression and financial stress, and increased use of health services — all findings from the Oregon Medicaid study that Mr. Douthat cites — count so little?

Mr. Douthat’s policy prescriptions are skewed by his personal experience. If his experience had been the anxiety of delayed health care or threatened bankruptcy, that would skew his lens differently.

Moreover, there are many disincentives to innovation that have little to do with universal coverage. The medical establishment is by its nature conservative and unwelcoming to pathfinders; many solutions are not profitable because they’re cheap or the numbers affected are small; and huge resources are wasted on drug advertising and insurance bureaucracies that are rarely patient-friendly.

These are choices we need not make. We can do better.

Lois Salisbury

Sausalito, Calif.

The writer is founding chair of Health Access California.