Health care for all

My husband and I feel very fortunate to have good health-care insurance coverage. Though health care was supposed to be provided free after retirement, we now have to pay a small amount for the supplement to Medicare we carry. We are grateful and consider ourselves to be among the lucky folk who have access to good health care at a reasonable cost.

But what about those who don't? Those who don't earn enough to purchase health-care insurance, who are out of work or whose coverage has been dropped or are unable to work for health or other reasons.

Universal health care -- cradle to grave coverage -- should, I believe, be everyone's right. But who is going to pay for it is a question I hear so often.

The answer is you and me. The fortunate ones. Those who have jobs and can afford good health-care coverage and who can afford to help provide it for those who aren't as fortunate. It sounds like communism but to many others it seems to be about compassion.

Isn't that what we are called to do as Jews, Christians, Muslims, believers and non-believers -- to care for those less fortunate?

I pray that the Congress and Senate will come up with such a plan so the United States can catch up with the rest of the world.

BARBARA WATSON
Scott