The "Fact Check" in the 10/26 IR by the AP entirely misses the point if its purpose is to outline the costs private health insurers impose on the American public. Health insurers squander at least 30 cents of every health care dollar on: 1) sales commissions, 2) marketing costs, 3) overhead, 4) outrageous executive compensation (one CEO was paid $22 million), 5) underwriting costs (determining who not to cover and what procedures to deny) and, finally, 6) profits. Health insurers also inflict unnecessary costs on doctors, hospitals and pharmacies by causing them to deal with delays, denials and minutiae of over 15,000 different plans.

So a study that keys in on health insurance company "profits" alone is meaningless. What is meaningful is that the Americans pay nearly twice as much as most other developed countries for health care - and the primary reason is that we have private health insurance companies and they don't.

We need single-payer health care. If we can't have that, then we need to make Medicare available to anyone who wants to sign up. Either option can actually reverse (not simply reduce the rate of increase) our spiraling costs of health care.

Bob Balhiser

735 Corral Road