To the editor:

The Rodden family’s struggle to endure and recover from Pat’s trauma provides yet another illustration (as if we needed more) of the truly grotesque state of the healthcare system in this country. That Kris and her children have to deal with Pat’s condition is tragic enough; that they should have to simultaneously prepare to sell the house that they loved and labored over for years to pay medical bills adds insult to injury.

This would be unthinkable in any other Western democracy. Other countries treat healthcare as a basic right of citizens, not a product to be sold at the highest possible profit. Did you know that almost half of all bankruptcies in the U.S. are the result of medical bills — for people who have insurance? Did you know that insurance companies pocket almost a third of every healthcare dollar, in exchange for what, exactly? Private jets and multimillion-dollar bonuses for their CEOs.

But instead of a serious discussion of how we might improve healthcare, we get right-wing lunatics screaming about fictitious “death panels” and “rationing” and the bugaboo of a “government takeover.”

News flash: We already ration care, in the cruelest way possible, based on your ability to pay. And the citizens of those “socialist” countries with government-paid care wouldn’t trade places with us on a bet.

Polls tell us that most Americans are “satisfied” with their healthcare. In fact, those lucky enough to be covered by government-run Medicare are generally quite happy. Those who are young and healthy and seldom need care are satisfied, too.

Most of the rest of us, however, are just one slip away from a nightmare like the one the Roddens are now enduring. If a “government takeover” meant that they got to keep their house, I say bring it on.

Rob Lewis

Langley