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Show (DaMMEWTT curtis hayes Health-car- e rv n plan another deceptive, dream if f well-mea- nt liberals hair a long history of chasing one panacea after another. We arc alwayt com inced if we can jutt grt this one law utvni. thi imr tMogram enacted, or thit one candidate elected. r will br well cm our way to cttablithing a new wxiciy in which every cilim it afforded the dignity and ha(pincvt to w hit h he it rightfully entitled. Or to the i helot k SALT II; the lut it endless. rot. KRA. Humphrey-HawkinLsen when they arr only dreams, our utojwan idea ate not without purpose, fctcryone needt a dream of pie in the iky. br it thr Celestial Kingdom or full employment and equal s, Jul rightt. Because they air our dreamt, we often aren't willing to fully examine the implications of the ptogramt we are pushing. After all. no one wants to know his version of thr new society has a few kinks. National Health Insurance is one of thr liberal dreams that has been around for a long time. According to thr liberal line, what wr will have after thr passage of a national health insurance plan is 220 million healthy Americans receiving thr finrst available health care at a modrst cost. Unfortunately, what wr will havr is 220 million Amrrieans who arr just as unhealthy as they arr now, receiving the same poor health care they do now at an rxorbitant price. The problem is not thr national health insurance, but that it is to be worked into thr existing health are system with all of its misting problems. Thr whole rmphasit of our present health-car- e system is oriented toward what ran br called "crisis intervention" medicine. The system is designed to help people only after they are so sick that they can no longer function effectively. It inherently encourages people to suffer with thrir ailmrnts until a crisis nrcrssitatrs medical attention. Such a healthare system is bound to br expensive. Crisis intervention medicine must rely on high-cos- t technology and highly trained medical specialists. Every hospital tuff feels that it must have thr latest equipment, and the latest in thr medical world doesn't come cheap. Likewise, highly trained specialists demand and geta high price for thrir services. Thr system encourages nerdlrss hospital stays and surgeries. It encourages expensive lab work that may not be really necessary. It encourages wastefulness in any number of arras. Of course, the medical professions pay lip service to ideas like preventative medicine and health education programs, but the fact is that there is money to br made in treating thr very ill, not in educating the relatively healthy. Having a national health insurance program to pump more money into our existing health care system is not going to improve the quality of health rare. It will simply make thr present system available to more people. Hospitals, doctors, pharmaceutical companies and others who thrive on the present system would derive the most benefit from thr -- insurance. Americans need a health care system that doesn't operate on the profit motive a truly socialized system. Rep. Ronald -- has proposed a system of government-financehealth care centers which would community-bate- d health education and care based on preventaiive emphasize medicine and treating illness before it gets out of hand. Adoption of such a proposal would br a step in the right direction. Dellums. d, f.. -- Other possibilities include a system in which doctors arc salaried, rather than operating on the profit motive, and in which hospitals are communityrun rather than in competition with one another. Thr emergence of prepaid organisations which salary doctors instead of paying them on a fee-fservice basis are a hopeful health-maintenen- cr or sign. There arr some industries in which the needs of thr d consumer arr not by the profit motive. A health rare system that profits from illness it not one which best serves the consumer. And a national health insurance plan to further bolster the present system is not the way to improve the quality of health in the United States. well-serve- LETTERS LETTERS ArtW Wtf l&lV Y 'Jy I LWRS PE0PtE CAN W s-S- ws LETTERS LETTERS IN HERE &o THAT GENERATIONS From NOW, jvAWHENThEYTRE DEUVERED, yXv II CAPSULE, SM- - WE PUT WERE E uke" WHAT y LETTERS LETTERS J Reemtsma missed point of 'Serial' Editor: Dirk Reemtsma is pathetic as a movie critic. This is neither good nor bad; it just is. In his review of Serial (Wednesday's Chronicle), Reemtsma states that this film suffers from "unrealistic, scrambled dialogue," "inept acting" and "minimal plot." Reemtsma has simply missed the point. Serial speaks of the lifestyle centered in Marin County, Calif., which is characterized g by hipsters, lemming-lik- e consumerism and cancerous psychobabble. The screenplay is an adaptation of Cyra McFadden's book Serial, which chronicled hot-tubbin- the late'70s existence of the young, class, new age suburbanites. Shallow, scrambled dialogue is the way these people communicate, and this film does a particularly good job of illustrating and riduculing the situation.' When Reemtsma says that the acting in Serial is inept, shallow and unconvincing, he merely shows his total misconception of the roles. Reemtsma, for your information, overeducated, upper-middl- e Harvey Holroyd is a reserved person. For Martin Mull to portray Harvey with the same zaniness he used in playing Garth-Bart- h Gimbal in Mary Hartman-Mar- y Hartman and Femwood Tonight would make Harvey a fungible monad of the society he is fighting. The performances of Sally Kellerman and Tuesday Weld may seem forced, but this is because they play housewives anxious to be liberated, not liberated housewives. And you fail to even mention Bill Macy, who gave perhaps the most 'Mannish' portrayal in the entire film. a Serial lampoons this extension of the 'me decade' which is currently spreading across the country, and lampoons it well. This movie will become the cause celebre of the new wave cult films of the '80s, much in the mold of Harold and Maude and The Ruling Class. Reemtsma, read the book, move to San Francisco for six months and then see Serial again. Then you will truly be able to say "I hear ya." John Lehmer Joe Hanley bay-are- |