Letters to The Star-Ledger April 01, 2009

http://blog.nj.com/ledgerletters/2009/04/abbott_remains_bleak.html#more

A recent letter writer, attempting to discredit President Obama's health plan by citing the death of Natasha Richardson, made several egregious misstatements ('Could Natasha Richardson have been saved?" March 25).

The writer claims that a Montreal hospital was not equipped to save Richardson's life, but the real problem was that the actress told medical staff at the site she felt fine and didn't reach the hospital for nearly four hours -- a critical gap for a head injury. The delay of treatment, not the quality of treatment, made the difference between life and death.

The writer goes on to claim that if "President Obama fixes our (health care) system ... you're going to get what the Canadians have, which is a great system, unless you get sick or you have an accident." Obama is not planning to copy Canada's system; he is trying to make our existing health care system affordable for all American citizens. Over 45 million Americans lack any sort of health care. Those individuals already cannot afford to get sick or have an accident.

Egregiously exploiting an actress' tragic death is a classless way to make a political statement.
-- Eddie Konczal, Monroe Township