Path to solutions

In response to William B. Gordon's letter ("The Message to Me," Dec. 29): A few years back I dislocated a finger at a work-related function. I went to the local hospital, paid a $50 deductible and received treatment. My finger has never healed properly; I received $50 reimbursement checks from both the hospital's owner and my employer's insurance company (one was not cashed); and the hospital in question is now closing because of a lack of profits (or so they say).

Message to me? That private companies are incompetent at their stated tasks and are awful record-keepers? No, it is that government and private companies are all made up of ordinary, imperfect people who make mistakes. If we can manage to stop demonizing one entity and glorifying the other (government and private enterprise), we might realize that neither has a monopoly on mismanagement or incompetence and then work toward solutions that result in better outcomes for the most people possible.

DANIEL P. COLES
Monroeville