EDITOR:

A few years ago someone said its a terrible thing to waste a crisis and was criticized but its true; that could be the best time to learn how to solve a problem.

Already, we see from this crisis that myths have been exposed; myths that only those who want to believe will still believe.

We are told how great our economy is so we refuse to believe 50% of us live paycheck to paycheck and 40% couldn’t cover an unexpected $400 bill. But now we see authorities weighing whether to close schools which would slow the virus from spreading or leave them open so some kids would have at least one good meal a day and could continue taking food home for the weekend. That doesn’t sound like they’re kids from the richest country in the world. Actually, it is somewhat true. We are the richest country but the wealth is virtually all at the top so the majority is economically insecure. That’s not a good economy. An economy can’t be judged by the stock market. That money is imaginary money; it could double tomorrow and be gone the next day.

We have been told for a long time that we have the best healthcare. The last figures I saw, France had the best and we were number 41. We’re terrible. No European country would change with us. We’re bad for infant mortality, bad for mothers dying giving birth, bad for life expectancy, bad for treating mental illness, and terrible for people going bankrupt because of illnesses.

Look what’s happening right now; we’re totally unprepared. South Korea has 12 beds per thousand people, we have 2.8. Almost unbelievable. I expect a lot of people think the hospital in Marquette was built for the purpose of providing healthcare. Actually the owners built it to make money so it has to make a profit. No profit, no hospital. Same thing for all the walk-ins you see in cities. Bernie Sanders is correct; healthcare should be a human right. No one should be making a profit from our illnesses. We can’t expect for-profit hospitals to stock medical equipment for unforeseen emergencies because if they had to they wouldn’t make a profit.

However, we should expect the government to do so. We spend, now over a trillion dollars a year, an obscene amount, to keep us safe from foreign enemies but are hesitant to do much in the way of keeping us safe from diseases.

Another falsehood that we’re told to believe is that the government can’t do anything right. The greatest percent of satisfied patients are those of the VA system. Some things, only the government can do right: air traffic control and firefighters are a couple that come to mind and more and more so is good healthcare.

Jude Collins

Manistique