Letter to the Editor: A failing health-care system

Our failing health-care system hurts us all

To you who believe that America’s health-care system is #1, I’m turning to you for answers!

When a company can buy the rights to manufacture a medicine that had previously been dispensed for free and then begin charging a third of a million dollars for a year’s supply, our system is a corrupt.

When my friend is dying for lack of 120 pills because they cost $70k, our system is run by bean counters, not human beings with a heart and a soul.

When a local man develops a blood disease, has no insurance because he’s starting a business and — then blows his head off to protect his family’s finances because he can’t afford the weekly treatments he needs — our system is a disgraceful failure.

When I go see a surgeon and he can’t even begin to tell me how much I’m ultimately going to have to pay for the procedure he intends to perform, our dishonest system sets us up for bankruptcy.

When I have to battle my insurance company tooth and nail to honor their promises to me — and then fail to receive the benefits I paid for — our system is pure trickery and structured for the profiteers, not the patients.

Lovers of our FOR PROFIT health-care system, please help me to understand why our system is the best in the world because I’m just not feeling it.

I’m angry! I’m angry that so many of you are so blind to the need among your brothers and sisters in this community and this country and you fail to acknowledge it. And your mindset is killing people.

— Eric Treider, Soldotna