Re "Healthcare code blue," Opinion, Nov. 3

John Abramson points out an unavoidable fact -- that the United States spends more on healthcare than any other nation -- and follows it up with a whopper: "No politician wants to be tarred with the charge of promoting 'socialized medicine.' "

The good doctor has somehow missed state Sen. Sheila Kuehl (D-Santa Monica), whose plan for a government-monopoly healthcare system was vetoed by Gov. Schwarzenegger. Consider also President Bush, whose Medicare drug benefit was the largest entitlement expansion since the Great Society.

This creeping government takeover of American healthcare has consequences. Fewer physicians enter primary care practice, as they have learned that they lose money treating patients in relentlessly expanding state Medicaid programs.

Meanwhile, north of the border, fewer Canadians now travel to the United States for care. The Canadian Supreme Court recently struck down government-monopoly healthcare. Private surgical clinics are opening in response.

JOHN R. GRAHAM
San Francisco