Donald Kollisch

Dear Honorable Chair and Members, I am a retired Family Doctor at the VA Hospital. At the VA I could take optimal care of all of my patients because I knew that their "insurance coverage" was excellent. If I wanted them to have a test or a medication, they got it. I didn't have to find out which insurance company they had or file a "prior authorization". My work was respected, and my patients were not hassled. Before working at the VA I practiced Family Medicine in Monroe, NH, up in the North Country. My low income farmers and loggers often couldn't afford care because they were self-employed and couldn't afford insurance. They prayed that they'd live to be 65 so they could get Medicare. Realistically, neither VA care nor Medicare coverage is ideal; they both have flaws. But both of them are fair and affordable. I believe that a system of Universal Health Insurance - some sort of National Health Program that covers everyone - would be ideal. Our current system, with 1600 different insurance companies/plans, each with its own rules - and many of them designed to bring phenomenal profits to the companies' shareholders and executives - is wasteful, and prone to abuse. Let's be brave enough and honest enough to say that Medicare works, the VA works, and that we can design a program for all Americans that works for all of us.