
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, August 9, 1994                   TAG: 9408250061
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A5   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: JOHN RICE MONTGOMERY
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

HEALTH REFORM

I OFTEN read that the United States has the ``best health-care system in the world,'' and that we the people would be foolish, at best, to tinker with this virtual perfection. I'm amazed at the lack of understanding on the part of some, and by the advancement of certain religious or political viewpoints over the health of our citizens by others.

With just a little thought, most reasonable people can see our society's massive health-care problems, and they only disagree about the best solutions.

The most shocking aspect of our health-care problems is simply the cost. Those ignoring the astronomical expense of being ill in America must ignore some very basic facts.

An experienced medical specialist can earn 10 times the salary of an average working person in our society. A hospital stay of four or five days can cost as much as an average wage employee can make in a year. A few prescriptions can cost hundreds of dollars, costs often neglected by insurance plans.

In our society, only the very rich and the very poor have guaranteed medical care. Of course, the very rich buy whatever they want. The very poor take whatever emergency departments can give. The rest of us live from premium to premium, from job to job, and we consider ourselves lucky if we have the ``privilege'' of paying hundreds of dollars each month for partial protection from huge expenses that might wait for us around any corner.

Those who oppose abortion under all conditions would deny us a reasoned examination of our much larger health-care needs just to preserve or perpetuate their narrow political-religious view. I admire their dedication to their philosophy, but I regret they would consider harming us all to preserve that philosophy.

I also admire fiscal conservatives who believe strongly that excessive debt is a national evil, but I regret that they ignore the needs and the history that make their rigid viewpoint unacceptable to the majority of Americans.

The advent of Social Security brought forth the doomsayers, but we all survived. Many people in this valley would be destitute without this ``socialistic'' program, and others would be poor indeed if Medicare had failed in Congress almost 30 years ago. The national needs in this country, from roads and bridges to basic poverty, have often been attacked by huge national programs, and we're still not the socialistic cesspool the rigid right would have us believe.

We've just determined in the past that massive problems need massive resources and national solutions. We've also found that local governments so dear to the hearts of conservatives are often rife with corruption, nepotism and parochialism. We in Roanoke know those problems well.

In this country, people just don't die on hospital steps. Everyone has medical care - universal care in a very real sense - but we have a variety of names and levels of humiliation for the services our medical professionals offer. Those who can afford health care suffer under the financial burden, and yet we somehow consider ourselves the lucky ones.

We have a high quality of health care in this country, though we probably do not have the ``best.'' We have an extremely clumsy delivery system, and we should gratefully work with our government - the one we elected - to find reasonable solutions. We need healthy, happy Americans who can expect good medical care when they become ill. We don't need Americans who must balance medical care against food, rent and the remnants of their personal pride.

John Rice Montgomery of Roanoke is administrator of a nonprofit organization.

by CNB