I’m not sure whether I should characterize Mr. Begakis’ column (“Obama’s Health Plan Ignores Human Nature,” Daily Nexus, May 13) as flawed, offensive, willfully stupid or some Frankenstein-like combination of all three. From the first sentence, he makes factually incorrect statements, mischaracterizes an entire political movement and manages to mangle the underlying tenants of mankind’s largest religion.

First, Mr. Begakis proves his ignorance by asserting that “our market-based system” is “superior” when, in fact, nations with single-payer health care systems (SPHCS) pay significantly lower percentages of GDP and live longer than our “superior” and broken health care system. He also seems to misunderstand how a SPHCS works; the number of doctors actually increases under most SPHCS, and their payments merely shift from insurance companies to the federal government. More importantly, he seems to ignore the fact that we already have a SPHCS from Medicare and Medicaid.

Second, Mr. Begakis grossly mischaracterizes the progressive movement. Progressives fully realize that humans are domineering and greedy individuals. That is the central reason why they seek to PROTECT people from the greed that Mr. Begakis is encouraging.

Finally, I find it odd that Mr. Begakis is using a prophet famous for saying “It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than a rich man to enter into heaven” when he is defending greedy corporations that make billions of dollars every year off of human suffering. Jesus sought to deliver ALL of mankind from sin and damnation, not the privileged few Mr. Begakis is defending. If Mr. Begakis would stop promoting the welfare of the wealthy at the expense of the poor, he might be able to see Christ for the egalitarian progressive he actually is.