I love your show. I truly believe you are independent and give a fair balanced point of view. I am hoping this email to all your colleagues that I watch regularly. Fox has a great team! I have been watching it virtually every night. After watching Greta’s show last night, it compelled me to write this letter.

I am a medical insurance broker that specializes in group insurance programs. I am one of the few people in my business that believes insurance companies need to be reformed dramatically in order to do the right thing with healthcare. They are a big part of the problem with rising costs. The issue I want to bring to your attention though is something that I have never seen anyone talk about:

I live in Cook County (CC). In (CC) as in every major city in the US, local governments must support a tax payer public health system. I understand it is a federal law. Being in my business there are times when someone will call my office and not have medical insurance. My office asks if they live in CC and they are referred to CC hospital. They receive treatment for just about everything imaginable usually at no cost. In fact I know of people who live in very affluent suburbs of CC that have had surgeries done at no cost. What I never ever hear anyone talk about is if and when the US system goes in place, what happens to the public systems already set up? I mean I as a tax payer in CC pay to support the system. I believe the budget for CC Hospital is around 1,000,000,000,00 annually. The hospital treats about 1.4 million patients a year. CC has a population of around 7,000,000.00 so approximately 20% of the CC population are treated at CC hospital. We could do a whole segment on the waste at CC hospital, but follow me for a minute here. So taxpayer of major cities around the US are already supporting through their local taxes, a public health system. The US government wants to make all citizens purchase medical insurance. Besides the fact that we are adding another layer of administration of medical claims on the system at a very high rate (Medicare administrative costs are approximately 4% of dollars collected, insurance administrative costs are believed to be 30 to 35%) I have a few questions that I would love to have some of our elected officials answer.

Why don’t we fix the current public health system in the major metropolitan cities around the country? We have a public taxpayer system, in fact many of them around the country . Why doesn’t the federal government take over those local systems and run them more effectively? Change the state controlled charter and take them over? You want to take waste out of systems!

For all the criticism the VA gets, it is considered one of the best medical outcome faculties in the world. Let them run the local systems

If and when the US requires everyone to purchase medical insurance, what will happen to all the taxes people in CC and everywhere else pay?

We are using billions of dollars of public money outside of Medicaid and Medicare and I don’t hear anyone discussing it. Medicaid and Medicare are funding systems. Cook County hospital and the like are actual facilities. Doctors, medical staff, testing equipment, surgical equipment, beds, bed pans etc.

I do not understand why in the world we would take taxpayer money that is being used to pay for healthcare outside of Medicaid and Medicare in large part and not include that in providing health care for everyone?

Every time I ask local politicians about this they avoid the issue. There is a ton of money not only for Cook County but other local governments around the country being spent on healthcare that is never mentioned.

I am not naïve, but it would be great if my local taxes would go down once the US government starts funding private insurance.

On a personal thought, I believe healthcare is a right, medical insurance is not. Everyone legal or illegal should receive healthcare. Until this government wants to deal with the illegal alien issue people should be covered. We are paying for them now. Whether it is the doctor/hospital that gets stuck with the bill or the public systems that treat 3rd stages of curable cancer, we are paying for them. Medical insurance is something you purchase. Example abortion, Nose jobs Rhinoplasty etc are for the most part elective procedures. They should be covered under insurance programs, not basic healthcare.

One last thought, I do have many more though. Politicians need to realize that healthcare and health insurance are two different things?

Thank you all for taking your valuable time to read this email. I know I ramble but I feel very passionate about what is happening in this country and have a ton to say.

Please keep up the great work you are all doing!