DEAR EDITOR:

Star Parker’s “Let’s fix our broken health care system” is filled with inaccurate and misleading information.

In her effort to make the ACA appear less important than it is, she erroneously states that “Obamacare deliver[s] health care to 7% of Americans.” A cursory Google search shows that ACA enrollment is nearly double that, at over 13% — 45+ million Americans.

She goes on to make per capita expenditure comparisons between the U.S. system and the health care systems of other countries without considering the vast differences between those systems. Switzerland, for example, has a mandatory universal system with heavily regulated nonprofit providers. Indeed, when every citizen is mandated to have care, and the system providing the care is non-profit, expenditures will be less! Instead of writing editorials, perhaps she should speak to the Republicans who fought a U.S. individual mandate, or the millionaires in the C-suite of any major U.S. health care company.

Comparing health care costs to the cost of things like clothing is disingenuous. Clothing costs have not increased because our clothes are now almost entirely made overseas, in countries with incredibly low wages and poor working conditions! Until we can ship U.S. patients to Bangladesh for care, or until we can pay U.S. doctors and nurses $2.12 an hour, health care costs will outpace consumer goods.

Regarding her suggestion that we could all “shop around for the best deal” — our current system is already bureaucratic and time-consuming to navigate. Does she believe that legions of seniors, or those with serious health issues, have the time, internet savvy or mental acuity to find these deals? And has she not been paying attention to the near-total consolidation of individual medical practices under a small handful of gigantic umbrella companies? In many regions of the country, “shopping around” amounts to the choice between one for-profit mega-corporation and another for-profit mega-corporation.

She ultimately relies on the same simplistic Republican framework (“government is the problem,” free markets solve everything) that we’ve heard since Reagan. For all the senseless tragedy of Brian Thompson’s murder, it did introduce to the public the phrase, “delay, deny, defend,” which is the guiding principle of our current for-profit system. Turning more of our health care over to “free markets” will only invite more delays, denials, and litigation, not better care.

President Obama tried his damnedest to change the U.S. health care system for the better, and he did the best he could in the face of constant Republican opposition. I myself am able to run a small business and not pay an exorbitant amount for health insurance thanks to the ACA. The U.S. system is far from perfect, but Ms. Parker’s “fixes” are a fantasy.

MARK MELNICK

Poland