The president stated in his news conference last week that the only health care system that will cover everyone is a single-payer system. He also stated that two-thirds of the cost of health care reform could be covered by eliminating waste in the system.

A single-payer system would eliminate the 31 percent of health care cost that is currently siphoned off by the insurance industry. Do the math -- two-thirds or 67 percent + 31 percent = 98 percent! In other words, a single-payer system could be had for virtually no additional cost by simply removing the insurance industry and its profits from the equation. The countries that are doing that now enjoy better health care by every measurement than we do. This is not rocket science -- we have the opportunity to get this done, and any politician who tries to stop it deserves to be fired. We need leaders who are courageous enough to stand up to the insurance lobby and give us a rational health care system. Single-payer is that system, and we all need to demand that we get it now.

R. Clifton Caughron

2045 Gold Rush Ave.