Editor:

I agree with Sen. John Barrasso that Americans need to take charge of their health. One way he could help us is to target our food supply that is loaded with corn syrups, fructose and sugars, hormones, antibiotics, pesticides and insecticides and charge the food industry with providing pure products. He won't do that because that would be messing with American corporations.

He conveniently leaves out the problems with insurance companies. These companies take 30 percent of premiums as initial profits. Not even the Mafia gets that kind of return. Insurance companies have increased their profits in the last two years by 428 percent and their rates have risen four to five times the rate of incomes for working people. Insurance companies are happy to take our premiums until we get really sick. Then they drop us or look for anything in our health histories they can point to as a pre-existing condition.

One example is a woman who was denied coverage for breast cancer treatment in her 40s because she had a vaginal yeast infection in her 20s. Her insurance company told this woman that she had lied about a major medical condition in her past. There is no data to support a correlation between yeast infections and breast cancer. Who considers a yeast infection to be a major medical condition? Our government should protect us from these kinds of practices.

Currently insurance companies charge their reviewing physicians to deny coverage for 10 percent of claims. Never mind the Hippocratic Oath. In addition to that, they employ people to pour over claims and histories to find something they can point to as a previous condition no matter how trite to justify denial of coverage. Because insurance companies have become for-profit institutions, their focus has changed from providing a service to making more and more money for their stockholders.

It would take a miracle for Barrasso to truly represent the interests of his constituents and defy insurance lobbyists. There are currently four to five insurance lobbyists for every congressperson. We don't have much of a chance.

If Barrasso has a problem with Medicare not reimbursing for preventative counseling, he should do something about it. He is a senator, after all. We should expect more from him than a stern lecture about our individual responsibility for our health.

CHRIS BACON, Lusk