THE PUBLIC MIND: IN HEALTH CARE, `GOOD, FAST AND CHEAP' ARE HARD TO ASK FOR

To the Editor:

There is fast, there is cheap, and there is good. Pick any two. Regardless of your "rights" or the laws, all three are not likely to happen simultaneously.

In fact, with health care even "good" is not enough. People are "entitled" to the best or the system is liable. As for cheap, cheap is available but nobody wants it. You don't have to have heart surgery; you can take digitalis and nitroglycerin, restrict your activities, and die at home. It doesn't cost much.

Right now, people are demanding fast, cheap, and the best health care. We can delivery fast, we can deliver cheap, and we can deliver the best, but not all three at once (and additionally be liable for all adverse outcomes).

In this age of total abdication of individual responsibility, the sad truth is that the individual has much~ more input into what his health will be than the "system."

How many liver transplants are you going to give an alcoholic? How many lung transplants to a chain smoker? Pick a major illness or disease that is costing society billions o~f dollars and odds are that it is linked to individual behavior. You can regulate the doctors until they can't get anything done and it will not change the above.

Dr. Ed Masters

Cape Girardeau