They did minor editing, but kept the central meaning intact. The letter is the 4th one down:
Freedom to choose
SIR – The Massachusetts system of "universal" health care remains afloat only because of hundreds of millions of dollars in federal support ("In need of desperate remedies", October 18th).
One reason costs are so high in Massachusetts is that individuals are forced to purchase benefits they neither need nor want. Under any system of mandatory insurance, the state must necessarily define what constitutes an acceptable insurance policy, meaning that individuals are buying insurance on terms influenced by lobbyists and bureaucrats, rather than based on a rational assessment of their needs.
If the federal government adopts the Massachusetts system on a national scale, it would merely multiply those problems fifty-fold.
Dr Paul Hsieh
Co-founder Freedom and Individual Rights in Medicine
Sedalia, Colorado
