I was hoping for a more balanced response from the Times-Union regarding the weaknesses of a single-payer national health plan, in essence a Medicare for all citizens proposed by Bernie Sanders.

The United States spends more of its gross domestic product on health care than any other nation on Earth yet fails to insure all its citizens.

Why is that?

One reason is that all other nations realize a for-profit insurance system such as ours with multiple administrative layers that run between 20 percent to 30 percent is unsustainable.

Medicare does a fantastic job with all its faults, operating at 4 percent.

When the CEO of Florida Blue alone makes over $6 million a year, how can you argue this is more efficient?

With insurance averaging over $12,500 per family, how is that not a tax plan as the Times-Union claims Sanders' proposal is?

Any health coverage will require a fee or tax. The difference is our current system puts the poor into Medicaid and the elderly and disabled into Medicare. The two highest risk pools go into the taxpayers' budget. Meanwhile private insurance gets the low risk pool, young to middle-aged workers at a profit.

No other nation would conceive of such a ludicrous paradigm.

To boot, we rank low in many internationally recognized metrics of health care, such as infant mortality, average life span, STD transmission rates and access to prenatal care.

To argue that an improved model that would offer access to health care for all Americans should not be attempted because it would be "disruptive" is faulty logic.

Many respected economists argue that Sanders' plan can work. I refer the reader to www.pnhp.org.

On this controversial subject, many powerful interest groups will lie to the American public. To add insult to injury, health care-related debt is the main reason Americans file for bankruptcy.

The immorality of our callous system is paid with human lives, which I have personally seen over 20 years practicing emergency medicine in Jacksonville.

Many polls show a majority of Americans would support a Medicare-for-all system. The Canadians are not dumping their model and adopting ours.

It is a myth that most Canadians would cross over into the U.S. to access health care.

Actually more Americans on the border cross to Canada to buy the same drugs we pay exorbitant prices for due to negotiated bulk purchasing discounts that Canada's government offers its people (but ours does not).

If we really care about each other and love this great nation, we should all support a Medicare for all and eliminate the wasteful for profit private health insurance industry.

Leo Alonso, physician, Jacksonville