This is in response to a column by Christopher Flavelle published Dec. 17 with a headline of “Cut medical care costs by paying doctors less.” Flavelle alleges that doctors are overpaid and that drives up the cost of health care.

Let’s look at the issue from a different perspective.

Movie stars and professional athletes make millions of dollars a year. Fans think nothing of paying $15 or $20 to watch a single movie, or spend hundreds of dollars for seats at certain sporting events.

Imagine this scenario: You are at the Super Bowl and suddenly fall over with a heart attack. A doctor who was sitting nearby rushes to your side. A player on the field, seeing the commotion, runs over to assist. As you lay there on the ground, near death, which of the two men is more valuable to you? The football player with a $10 million contract or the doctor who earned a measly $200,000 last year?

I think that doctors and others in the medical profession deserve what they earn.

John Nickerson, Poland