Less Than $26 Billion? Don’t Bother.

http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/11/03/less-than-26-billion-dont-bother/?scp=2&sq=emanuel&st=cse

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine
Date: Mon, Nov 7, 2011 at 7:10 AM
Subject: re: Less Than $26 Billion? Don’t Bother.
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:
  Dr. Emanuel points to the $11billion that our Health Insurance companies report as annual income and calls it a sum to small to bother with. Doing so, he obscures the larger truth; our Health Insurance companies don't need to exist. Under SinglePayer the function shrivels to paying the healthcare costs as they're incurred.  Add up the profits of the Insurance companies and all their salaries and benefits, and you have a sum that is not negligible. And then we would still have to rein in the costs of delivering too much healthcare to the dying.
Barry Haskell Levine