EDITOR,

Steve Wampler’s diatribe against health care reform (“Health care takeover only makes sense to Socialists,” Aug. 22) has prompted me to tell a different story.

I’ve lived long enough to remember the day when health care costs didn’t bankrupt working families and drive them into the abyss of eternal poverty. Something has changed over the years: Greed is the new American god.

Those of you who think your doctor is in charge of your health care have not experienced what my family has. A clerk at a desk in a far-off insurance office denies you the medicine your doctor prescribes, or the dosage, or a procedure that will ameliorate the ravages of a terrible disease, or postpones it, leaving you to suffer all the while, anxiously awaiting the life-altering decision from “on high.”

I’m as much of a capitalist as anyone, but something is wrong with a society that condones sending working-class families into bankruptcy and untended sickness because of the cost of health care.

The absolute worst position to be in is that of the “underinsured.” The cost of premiums and co-payments leaves one in a far worse condition than those without insurance. If the insurance pays 80 percent or a procedure, the 20 percent that is yours to pay could still be beyond the reach of most working families.

If you have a minor accident and need an emergency room, you could be looking at an $8,000 bill. Many working families don’t have $1,600 in an emergency fund to fork over. Their budgets barely allow for food on the table.

To continue down this path will only lead to a sick America, and a sick America is a weak America.

I don’t have the answers, but I detest the Republican-endorsed tactics of shouting down the voices of those who would hold civil discourse.

And, yes, I voted in 2008 for the presidential candidate whose mother died of cancer for lack of needed treatment.