Jaime Harmon: People do want health care reform

I have to severely disagree with some of the recent letters to the editor claiming that the majority of Americans do not want health care reform. Most of the people I know, myself included, have had extreme hardships due to the current state of health care in this nation. I have had my own personal struggles with medical bills, though I have never been without insurance. I have had friends with cancer, asthma, diabetes and still others with medical struggles that keep them from receiving treatment due to insurance companies' refusal to pay or even approve them for receiving coverage. Do not be fooled, insurance companies are out to make a profit from your health. Currently, the Untied States is the only developed nation in the world that allows its health insurance companies to be for-profit.

Additionally, the idea that health care reform will cost more than our current system is ludicrous. There are several cases throughout the world that prove the opposite. Japan for example, a capitalist democracy with a form of universal health care, spends less than half of what we currently spend per person per year even though the average person in Japan visits the doctor 15 times per year — three times the rate of people in the US.

To say the United States health care is fine how it is a falsehood. Nearly ever other developed nation has better health statistics than the U.S. and none of them force their citizens into financial ruin to get health care. Nearly 700,000 U.S. citizens are forced into bankruptcy every year due to medical bills; compare this to other developed nations including Great Britain, France, Germany and Japan, where there are zero medical bankruptcies. Health care reform is needed and I hope our lawmakers know how to make it happen.