Expanding health treatment demand is a good thing

Dear Editor: On Aug. 1, we learned from the highly regarded Rand Corporation that the New York Health Act would extend to all New York residents complete access to health care with such significant savings that New York can afford it.

But just a couple of days prior, the Mercatus Center, funded by the conservative Koch brothers, found the reverse for the entire country, despite what it said would be trillions of dollars saved. Why? Because it “would dramatically expand the demand for health care services.”

Well, yes, more people would get health care — that’s the general idea. They would take all their prescribed medications, instead of cutting back on them. They would see their doctors whenever a symptom became worrisome, instead of waiting until it was too late. As a result, thousands would live, and not die. And, in the process, the nation as a whole would save money, and health care would cease being the economic albatross around all our necks that it now is. Innovation would flourish, because people would no longer be afraid to leave their current jobs for fear of losing their health care coverage; they would feel free to go to new jobs that might better foster their new ideas.

Of course, the super rich might have to wait a trifle before they purchased their new yachts. My condolences to them. Paul R. Cooper Kingston, N.Y.