To "small-minded Americans," I have a wife who suffers from arthritis and her treatments cost about $5,000 every eight weeks and my co-payment is $500 ("A lesson in health care," letter, Aug. 20).

My family finances would definitely be better off under nationalized health care, but I don’t want "rich" Americans to subsidize any health care for me or others.

I could get into the political sides on this issue, but I want to deal with what I have seen. In the military, we have health care through military hospitals during our careers and retirement. At 65, we get switched to Medicare. I bet many soldiers did not know that. I found that out because my civilian boss was quite upset that after retirement from the Air Force, he had to enroll in Medicare at 65.

There are people who are complaining that U.S. health care is No. 37 in the world. Wow, I never thought anyone would travel to a country to get worse care, i.e. Canadians traveling to the U.S. to get specialized medical procedures that have very long wait times in Canada and England.

Has anyone brought up one of the reasons why health care is in disarray? It is because there are no restrictions on lawsuits.

Finally, nowhere in the Constitution is there a line stating that health care is a right. I see two political parties protecting their monetary hindquarters, Democrats protecting lawyers, Republicans protecting business. When are these two political parties going to protect the Constitution?

James BarberJoint Base Balad, Iraq

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