Dr. Leana Wen touches on several serious issues facing all Americans in regard to our health care system, however her main point misses the mark and she provides an extensive list of problems with few solutions.

While access to health care in rural areas, prescription drug prices, and the opioid epidemic are all important problems, Dr. Wen ignores the elephant in the room. Health care in our country simply costs too much. From 1999 to 2015 U..S wages grew 56 percent, slightly more than the rate of inflation. During that same time health insurance premiums rose an astounding 203 percent. This divergence is completely unsustainable for the vast majority of us and puts stress not only on workers, but also on employers as they struggle to attract employees with competitive benefits packages.

It is quite clear that a pure free market approach to health care has and will continue to fail and that government intervention into the pricing of medical care and prescriptions is the only solution. One solution to the issue of sky rocketing costs is through dictating pricing through Medicare for All. Government intervention is far from perfect and it is easy to attack, however without intervention health care will soon become impossible for working people and their families to afford.

Ben Freedman
Brooksville