I respect Rose Anderson but was disappointed by her bait-and-switch letter (Aug. 31). She reminded readers of some of  DFL’s past glories — Social Security and Medicare. Anderson also praised national health care but switched to asking readers to support President Obama’s attempts at health care “reform.” Like the party she represents — she is assistant chairwoman of the Freeborn County DFL Party — she either will not or cannot support a national health plan.

I blame Obama for this. Before his election he said he believed in the single-payer national health plan. After his election he said such a plan would be too “disruptive.” Recently while trying to quell wild rumors regarding his health reform plan, he said, “People are afraid of a government takeover of our health care. So am I.” And so rather than take the right approach and give us a workable, nonprofit system like Medicare, for instance. He chose to keep on board the two industries that caused all the trouble in the first place: private health insurers and pharmaceuticals. With health insurance, it’s the nature of the beast. A business will sell to anyone who wants to buy. Health insurers lose money on sick people so they sell only to the healthy. Even worse, there are some 1,400 conditions that can be used to cancel a policy. Between 2003 and 2007, Assurant Health, UnitedHealth and WellPoint saved $300 million by canceling 19,776 policies.

The public-option part of Obama’s plan, in which government insurance will compete with private insurance, has no way to control these practices and, in fact, would soon be saddled with the sickest, costliest patients and the highest payouts. The respected Congressional Budget Office reports that Obama’s plan may enroll only 10 million of the 47 million uninsured and have “virtually no effect on health care costs.”

Drs. Steffie Woolhandler and David Himmelstein, co-founders of Physicians for a National Health Plan (16,000 members), stated on their Web site (July 22, 2009): “Once Congress finishes mandating that we all buy private health insurance, it can move on to requiring Americans to purchase other defective products.”

Sometime later this month the single-payer health plan will come up for debate on the floor. We should stick together on this as there is no one in power to help us. We are about to be swallowed up by the health and pharmaceutical industries. Demand a single-payer or Medicare for all which is the same. Thank you.

Mary Milliron

Hollandale