Writings - The News & Observer

The News & Observer

March 29, 2001

Private health insurance

Edition: Final
Section: Editorial/Opinion
Page: A10

Index Terms:
Letter

Estimated printed pages: 1

Article Text:

Your March 9 article on N.C. Health Choice for Children ("Kids' insurance needs CPR") perfectly illustrated the potential danger of "welfare state" programs.

I hope all Americans would agree that universal access to health care is a laudable goal, especially for our youngest citizens; yet North Carolina's current budget problems clearly indicate that it should not be the primary provider of that access.

Publicly subsidized health insurance is a quick-fix solution that ignores the compulsive spending habits of politicians, conservative and liberal alike. The state has dangled the promise of health insurance in front of our poorest workers, only to have that promise stripped away when bureaucrats spend more on government programs than they take from our workers in taxes.

I'm no expert in the medical field; I'm just a hard-working citizen like so many others in this state. But I do know that those least able to afford the amenities many of us take for granted are the hardest hit when wealthy politicians spend with reckless abandon.

Let's hope this budget "crisis" encourages the state to find private solutions for providing medical insurance, instead of penalizing those hard-working people who have come to rely on its "quick fixes."

T. Greg Doucette

Raleigh

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