There are better ways for health care

Editor,

The situation described by Cathy Finley Dupuis in her letter to the editor regarding Tribal Health is very frustrating. I have had the same experience that she relates, and I believe her problem has two levels:

First, she needs an immediate (if temporary) solution to her problem regarding access to health care and reimbursement for her co-pay.

She and her family are due this by contract, and the buck should not be passed around Tribal Health.

Second, she and her family (and thousands like her) are due a more permanent and affordable solution, and that is free-market health care.

Obviously, from her example, the government (any government, whether Tribal, local, or federal) cannot run health care adequately to meet the needs of its people.

The solution is to get government out of the health care business, and let private professionals and business entrepreneurs run it like other successful businesses are run.

Ms. Dupuis is in an unfortunate situation where she has no choice.

Choice is crucial to quality, whether it be in health care, education, purchasing a car, or buying groceries. When you have no choice, you are stuck with the poor quality the government provides. When you have choices, you can take your money elsewhere.

This second solution does not help Ms. Dupuis today. Unfortunately, like many other citizens who've been duped by government programs, she must continue to receive her health care through Tribal Health or pay expensive co-payments.

However, there is hope for her 14-year old son, her little granddaughter, and all our children. That hope lies in less reliance on government programs and empty promises, and more promotion of private enterprise, not only in health care but in all important services of life.

My experience with this awful system comes from my career with Indian Health Service as a nurse anesthetist. I saw first-hand how government-run programs do not serve its beneficiaries as well as privately-run services.

As a non-Tribal beneficiary, I, too, was the victim of inferior (or unavailable) health care for many years. Luckily for me, I had options and have other benefits that allow me to receive my health care from the private sector. It is superior in quality, and would be even more affordable without government regulations and restrictions.

Not everyone is as fortunate as I am to have this choice, as in the case of Ms. Dupuis. Her ironic situation is that the very program that was designed to help her is actually hurting her and her family.

I am running for state senator of District 8 on the Libertarian ballot this November.

With my experience as a health care provider and a health care customer in a government program, health care is a very important issue to me. It is too important to be run by government. One of my goals, if elected, will be to give our children more choices and more quality in health care some day.

Maria Folsom

East Glacier Park