Letter to the Editor

Dear Editor,

Three recent opinion pieces in the Oxford Eagle prompted me to add my thoughts. 

The first by Sandra Melvin, Feb. 28, “Let’s see health care as a civil right,“ should, if it were read and understood, cause those opposed to a universal approach to health care a crisis of conscience. No one, in my opinion, should object to health care coverage for every citizen of this country, whether by required insurance coverage for those who can afford it or by governmental payment of premiums for those who cannot. 

I remember well the patients I worked with in my years as a practicing physician who had more serious problems than they would have experienced had they had prior access to adequate health care. I agree that health care should be a civil right. 

The next article by Sid Salter, March 6, “Working poor getting health care is economic development,” points to the previous failure of Mississippi to protect its citizens by not accepting even the incomplete coverage that Medicaid expansion would provide. 

He concludes that the Mississippi legislature should finish the job.

However, in the final article, March 16, “Work requirements a possible Biden compromise?” Sid Salter reports that a work requirement might be necessary for the Legislature to proceed with Medicaid expansion, even though the efficacy of such requirement is in question; I would point out that may be analogous to putting the cart before the horse.

Only the healthy can be expected to work efficiently and happily.

Jeff Justis
Oxford