"Public Option" Works for Her

One of several letters on health care reform from today's Star Tribune:

Several TV ads warn against a public option to the health care plan wanted by President Obama.

I am on Medicare, a public government-run program, and I have never had an interference between me and any doctors. However, before Medicare, my private health insurers came between us a lot. One carrier would change a medication I had been on for years for no apparent reason. Usually the new medicine was more expensive than the previous one.

Several new meds did not work for me. Once, I spent months in pain while my doctor argued with the insurer to get me back on the correct one. Insurers also intervened over procedures my doctor thought I needed.

Judy Ryan Haaversen, Minneapolis

It just goes to show, if you have to pick the bureaucrat who's going to stand between you and your doctor, go with the government bureaucrat over the private insurance bureaucrat.