Dear Editor,

Our Senator, Richard Shelby, still believes the United States has the “best health care in the world.” What planet did he come from?

I had an operation that I needed on my nose that cost $17,000 for a 5-minute surgery.

There are people that leave this country to get an operation in a foreign country because it’s too costly in the United States. Health care costs have had double-digit increases for some time. Insurance premiums have gone up so much, it has caused businesses to come up with unique ways to provide any insurance for their employees.

There are 40 million people or more that cannot afford insurance because it’s so costly. These people use the emergency room as their primary care, which puts a drain on the hospitals’ bottom lines and a drain on the rest of us who are billed/taxed to help cover the hospitals’ costs.

In the past, if you used up all your insurance, the insurance company would say, “Sorry, now go over there and die.”

So, if the Senator has the “best health care in the world,” it is because he (and his congressional pals) voted himself the best and pays for it with his automatic raises (our taxes).

His statement is a good reason why we do not need career politicians. They lose touch with reality.

Charles Powell, Clanton