I am glad that your article on the new infusion centers (April 17) took the trouble to present the pluses and minuses of medical care based upon the cheapest solution.

I worked in the medical field for over 40 years and watched as the drive for ever cheaper solutions intersected with an ever more lawsuit-happy society to drive the cost of medical services out of the rural and small town America into the centers of the larger cities. Even there, the large facilities themselves struggle to decide which new, possibly too costly treatments to include/exclude on the merry-go-round of cost controls and litigation risks.

The care in health care is about having a lifesaving service when you need it, not when it is affordable for whatever insurer needs to guarantee they are ever more profitably run. Why do we have some of the poorer outcomes among the most advanced countries? Because we manage health care like it was a self-indulgent luxury rather than a necessity.

Dying for lack of necessary services is the ultimate luxury tax imposed by our draconian health insurance “managers,” like Anthem.

 

John Seksay

Augusta

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