Access to health care should be guaranteed to all citizens. Bruce LeClaire argued in a letter that government-run health care is inefficient. But as a senior currently on Medicare, I can assure him it is not only efficient, but effective.

I might agree, as an unabashed liberal, that efficiencies are needed in government-run services, but the way to start realizing those efficiencies is to 1) cut all subsidies for Medicare Advantage plans, 2) allow negotiation on drug prices for pharmaceuticals for Medicare Part D and 3) take for-profit companies out of Part D all together. But conservatives, whose only motivation appears to be protecting profit, cannot give up on the right of corporations and entrepreneurs to earn in unrestricted ways.

LeClaire argues that we do not want to aspire to rank 27th worldwide in health care. No doubt it will be a surprise to him to hear that according to Business Insider International, there are already 36 countries that provide better health care than we do.

The pursuit of happiness can only happen when the concerns about access to health care are removed from the shoulders of Americans. And incidentally, businesses can increase their profits because they no longer will have to pay for their share of the insurance costs of their employees.

James Perley
Windham