Reject scare tactics so everyone can get care

In the July 5 Region section, Romana Kerr of Upper St. Clair states that national health care is communism because it will control every aspect of your life and that the president's plans for health care frighten her and they summon bad memories of her native Czech Republic, which was a communist country ("A Show of Independence").

The statement that universal health care is communism is indeed false and a scare tactic put out by the health insurance and pharmaceutical industries and many doctors. (Romana Kerr, incidentally, is a dentist.)

Let me ask you, Dr. Kerr, are you aware that numerous nations such as Canada, Australia, Israel, England, Italy, France, Spain, Greece, Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Germany and others many years ago adopted universal health care and not a single one of them has or had communist governments?

Be aware, Dr. Kerr, that we as a nation are ranked 37th in health care, according to the World Health Organization. Be aware that 18,000 Americans die every single year because they lack health-care insurance (according to the Institute of Medicine).

Be aware that we as a nation have greater infant mortality and less longevity than many European nations. Such being the reality, I exhort you, Dr. Kerr, to denounce scare tactics and to consider that the urgency of now demands a comprehensive national health-care system. The present system is in a crisis.

BRUNO DEL SIGNORE
Whitehall