Single-payer healthcare backed

Re “A second, third and fourth opinion on healthcare,” Opinion, Jan. 9

Thanks to state Sen. Sheila James Kuehl for her Op-Ed on healthcare. Her healthcare bill for universal coverage is the only appropriate one offered by our so-called public servants. Several years ago, the California Nurses Assn. conducted a study that demonstrated that a single-payer healthcare system, just by cutting administrative and insurance costs, could provide decent, affordable healthcare to everyone. Instead of pursuing this solution, politicians allow insurance companies to wallow in wealth.

Another way to cut healthcare costs is to change the way medicine is practiced. Most practitioners write expensive prescriptions rather than address the real cause of most illness: stress and unhealthy lifestyle choices, not to mention poverty and lack of healthcare. Sometimes the cheapest treatment (such as exercise, diet and relaxation) is the most effective one. So it’s not hard to figure out why the big shots don’t go for this.

ELLEN WINER RN

Los Angeles