Mailbag:

Joseph Bell wrote a piece last month all up in arms that the GOP was on a misinformation mission to sabotage health-care reform by protesting at town hall meetings (“The noise and the fury,” the Bell Curve, Aug. 13). Any reasonable person can see that the majority of Americans don’t like the idea because mostly they don’t trust the government to run it.

So I had to chuckle at Bell’s observation that the progressive voice in Newport-Mesa is alive and kicking. He says it’s sometimes noisy and chaotic, but I guess if the left speaks out to be heard, it’s “democracy in action” (“Democracy in action for health care,” the Bell Curve, Sept. 3). Bell, you are such a hypocrite!

I believe most people are not against some sort of health-care reform; we just don’t think it should be rushed through in the middle of the night to create another massive federal program.

We have time to do this in a thoughtful manner so as not to make current programs worse. You know, like that “temporary” income tax resulting in the IRS.

With elections approaching next year, it looks an awful lot like Clinton’s first term in office and the failure of Hillary-care. That resulted in big losses in the House for Democrats. History repeating itself? We’ll see.

TERRY JOHNSTON

Newport Beach

U.S. not a mecca for health care

The introduction to the statement by Mary Deininger in the Sept. 2 edition (“Care bill must be researched,” Sounding Off) unfortunately applies to her letter, which begins, “It is always amazing how ill-informed a great many citizens are . . . ”

People who come to the United States in these years for medical care are primarily the illegal immigrants who hope to be treated in emergency departments without charge.

On the other hand, many Americans who need expensive elective surgical services, such as hip replacement, are going abroad, such as to India, where the repair can be provided at less than half the cost of an American hospital.

This trend has been recorded extensively in the media.

For the minority of us who have excellent health-care coverage, American medicine is outstanding, but our health-care statistics compared to all other industrialized nations are among the worst, including life expectancy and perinatal mortality.

More than 62% of all bankruptcies in this country are due to medical expenses that were not covered by the insurance people had.

No nation that has a national health program experiences this problem.

JEROME TOBIS

Newport Beach