The basic argument against health-care reform suggests that people would see a negative financial impact from a government-funded insurance plan that provided coverage for millions of uninsured Americans.

Not being one to let others make up my mind for me, I’ve decided to ask, “Who pays for the health care of those uninsured who currently receive care from hospitals that are required to treat the sick and injured?” We’ve discussed this for years and the consensus is that the insured pay through hospital-imposed drug and service charge increases, as well as insurance premium increases.

So now the question becomes, “Would we pay less if the system were reformed?”

Given that hospitals and insurance companies currently increase their fees across the board, it becomes rather obvious that middle-income Americans stand to gain the most from such reform, assuming that the government stands by its commitment to fund this program primarily by increasing taxes on the wealthy.

We can assume that this will be the case, given the outrage expressed by opponents of this notion during the last election as well as the consistent complaints of the wealthy, whom we’ve become accustomed to hearing from over the years.

Now the question becomes, “Can we stomach this?”

I don’t know about other people, but I’ll be OK if the medical expenses of the uninsured, currently passed on to middle-income Americans, are, instead, passed to the wealthy.

Jamie Beaulieu, Farmington