Unreal thinking

In response to a letter in Sunday's PG ("It's Not a Right," Aug. 30 Issue One), equating health care to a luxury like "living in a nice neighborhood ... having a maid or a swimming pool" and suggesting that individuals instead "work hard and reprioritize your spending": I would ask that individual to try making the kind of budget an average family must and see how he would fit health care into that budget.

If a self-employed individual (don't we want to encourage entrepreneurship?) clears $50,000 a year before taxes, spends a modest one-third of his income for housing and utilities, pays for gas and insurance on one car (no car payment), saves 10 percent of his income for his IRA and feeds his family on $400 a month, there is no room for the (at least) $1,000 a month for his family's insurance, assuming he can buy it at all.

And that budget contains no "luxuries" like cable, a pool or even an occasional McDonald's meal. Who is living in the real world?

 

CHERYL HARTUNG
Harmony