Dear Editor:
As many of our state and local officials are considering state and national healthcare programs, I think that we should learn from Hawaii's experience. Seven months after instituting the only state child universal health-care program in the country, Hawaii is dropping the plan.
According to an October AP report, the state could no longer afford the plan though it enrolled about 2,000 of the state's estimate 3,500 to 16,000 uninsured children. In conjunction with the cost of the plan, the state objected to the fact that families were dumping their private health insurance to enroll in the "free" plan.
The last is an inevitable occurrence when government tries to "manage" healthcare. Freeloaders on the government dole are an unavoidable facet of government involvement in healthcare. So too are the end results of government involvement: rationing of care. This is true because people in public health programs perceive the care as free, and so they use them prolifically - for every twinge and ache - swamping the system.
Mark Percival
Watson, IL
Watson, Ill. —
