Revised Letter To the Editor

SOC 3433 Social Issues and Social Change

Letter to the Editor Writing Assignment II

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Original Letter Link:http://www.mndaily.com/2009/09/13/younger-take-health-insuranceA younger take on health insurance

PUBLISHED: 09/13/2009

BY MARK LARSON

Edited By: Dylan Thomas Kesti

The crux of the current debate about health care is the public option run by the government. Republicans talk as if this is completely irrational and even un-American concept, but it is no secret that Republicans are saying and doing anything they can to see a national health care plan fail and disappear.

Democrats say that a public option is necessary to lower the costs of health care insurance. The government plan will provide competition to the current system so people who do not have health care insurance have another choice.

Without competition, the Democrats say, health care costs will continue to ascend to astronomical heights. However, if competition is integral for holding down costs, why are Democrats taking away the most fundamental choice of every consumer: the choice to not buy a product one determines is too expensive? To choose not to have health care insurance is the ultimate weapon consumers have against high costs. This is especially true if you are young, as young adults are less likely to require health care. If health care insurance is too costly, going without it is a viable option. That is why the Democrats want to take away your fundamental consumer rights; they need healthy young adults to pay for the health care costs of older adults.

However, young adults will eventually get old and require health care. Paying now will guarantee their health care needs will be taken care of when they are older, right? If Social Security is any indicator, don’t bet on it. There is general agreement that today’s young adults will work all their lives to pay for older Americans retirement, but there will be little, if any, Social Security retirement payments left for them. There is no reason to believe it will be any different with the Democrat’s current version of a national health care plan. The plan is taking away the consumer rights of 40 million Americans without health care insurance, and will make health care insurance more costly because it removes competition. But in the end, competition, as Democrats insist, is what is needed to keep health care costs from continuing to skyrocket.

Mark Larson

University Student