Look Abroad for Answers on Health Care
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George F. Will ["A Health 'Reform' to Regret," op-ed, June 28] attributed America's high health-care costs to the demand for expensive technologies and new treatments. But that theory doesn't hold up when we look at how other countries deliver health care. Mr. Will could have gained insight from former Post foreign correspondent T.R. Reid, who teamed up with PBS's "Frontline" last year on a special called "Sick Around the World."
According to the "Frontline" report, Japan boasts "the best health statistics in the world. The Japanese go to the doctor three times as often as Americans, have more than twice as many MRI scans, use more drugs, and spend more days in the hospital. Yet Japan spends about half as much on health care per capita as the United States." The secret? In Japan, everyone must buy insurance, and insurers cannot turn away a patient for a preexisting illness; nor are insurers allowed to make a profit.
Here are the questions we should be asking: Why are we the only developed democracy in the world without universal health care? Why do we spend twice as much money on health care as other nations? And why do these other nations boast better health results? Mr. Will tried to answer only the second of these questions in his column, and he failed.
MICHAEL GREGORY
Silver Spring
