Craig Gunn's column "Health insurance, though far off, deserves students' thoughts" (SN 8/4), brings up the very important and pertinent issue of health care and I commend him for approaching the topic with students, who have a tendency to ignore the necessity and importance of health insurance.

However, he fails to draw a logical conclusion: The necessity for universal health care. The United States spending 14 percent of its total expenditures of the GDP per person on health care, while Canada spends only 9 percent and the United Kingdom spends 7 percent is not mentioned, according to author Charles Webster in his book "Caring for Health."

Furthermore, the United States spends the most on health care of all developed nations, according to Webster, yet has the lowest satisfaction rate, lower than Canada and the United Kingdom, both of which also have universal health care coverage, allowing every citizen equal access to health care.

This universal system eliminates the social stratification that is reinforced by our insurance system and allows equality, a basic tenet of the United States.

Because access to health care is necessary to fulfilling life goals, health care is thus a right, and one that should be upheld by our government. Only by providing universal access to health care can the United States both contain the escalating costs of health care and provide equality to all citizens.

So in answer to Gunn's column, by providing universal care we can both put a check on health care spending and a limit on the amount institutions such as MSU and individuals spend on health care, a benefit to anyone in or entering the "real world."

Erin Ruth
nutritional sciences senior