In a letter to the editor Monday, Philip Gibson of Bangor pleaded for the adoption of single-payer health care.

While he accurately identified some health care-related issues, he unfortunately offered up a naïve solution and, ultimately, an incorrect one.

For those enamored of single-payer health care, I offer the Veterans Affairs system as an example of this approach in practice. One might also wonder why Canadians come to the U.S. and forgo their single-payer system. The British system offers horror stories of bureaucratic health care decisions either denying coverage totally, or, by virtue of the system’s inherent inefficiencies, creating serious service delivery delays that quite often create adverse health results.

Bottom line: If you want to fix a problem, don’t get the government involved.

Don Vose

Naples