John Doyle’s column on June 24 about the Affordable Health Care Act and its potential for West Virginia was very informative and timely. However, it omits that even if the act makes insurance more affordable, high co-pays and deductibles will still prevent many from obtaining healthcare.

The best solution for healthcare is single payer, or Improved Medicare for All (MFA). Under MFA everyone, birth to death, gets preventive and medically necessary care. Patients continue to choose their private providers. Providers are not subject to the dictates of insurance companies. We all pay for the care with our taxes, which replace premiums, deductibles, and co-pays. Families and businesses are not paying more.

American taxpayers already pay for healthcare for 60 percent of our population, such as Medicare recipients, CHIP (poor children), government workers, teachers, police officers and patients in the VA system. This is not socialized medicine. It is the right thing to do.

We can extend basic services to the remaining 40 percent of our population and not spend more than we do right now-if we use our dollars wisely. Overhead for Medicare runs about 6 percent; for private insurance between 15 to 30 percent. Let’s spend those dollars on healthcare services, not high CEO salaries, lobbyists and making profits.

Delegate Doyle advises though single-payer is the best solution, it is not politically feasible. We the people must demand a system that meets the needs of patients and primary care providers, rather than the greed of health insurance and pharmaceutical companies.

Learn more about MFA at, Physicians for a National Healthcare Program. Work to support MFA. Contact EPSPAN (Eastern Panhandle Single Payer Action Network). Tell Rep. Capito to support HR676, “Expanded and Improved Medicare for All Act,” and tell Senators Rockefeller and Manchin to support S.915, “American Health Security Act of 2011.”

Ann Coulter

and Lynn Yellott,

Eastern Panhandle Single Payer Action Network