Editor, Daily Nexus,

In response to Mr. Bannigan’s assertion that Sen. John McCain’s competition-based health care plan will benefit our country (“Best of Health Care Result of Healthy Competition” Daily Nexus, Oct. 6): Are you kidding me? The health care system in this country is a joke because of capitalism and corporate greed, and more competition in health care is the last thing we need right now.

Unlike doctors who are bound by the Hippocratic Oath, pharmaceutical and insurance companies have only one incentive: profit. Consequently, insurance companies have had a tendency to deny people coverage based on age, income and preexisting conditions, so the people who need the most care can’t get treated or examined. Further, medical insurance is now so expensive that treatment for a life-saving operation or chronic condition will bankrupt families.

You also omit several telling aspects of Sens. Barack Obama’s and McCain’s plans. Obama’s plan already mirrors the state-run supplement to existing plans you suggested. McCain’s plan does not include any caveats for the chronically ill, infirm or elderly. As McCain’s plan will tax job-based health insurance — often the only kind people can afford — employers will have incentive not to insure their employees. While offering a $5,000 tax rebate, the average health care plan in this country has a rate of $12,000 with taxes. And how will McCain pay for this rebate? Given McCain’s pledge to make Bush’s tax cuts for the rich permanent — a move you approve of — the burden of this faulty health care plan would fall on the already dying middle class. Obama’s tax plan, on the other hand, will give tax breaks to low- and middle-income homes while increasing taxes on the rich.

Medical care should not be an issue of money but one of ethics. It may all be about profit to you, but for the people affected by it, it’s often a matter of life and death.