Many people express intense fear of "socialized medicine" as it relates to the current wrangling over health-care reform.

"Socialism doesn't work," declared a recent letter to this paper. Since when? Medicare and Social Security function efficiently and are generally scandal-free.

Americans are living longer so these systems will need help in the near-future but this is no reflection on their efficiency.

If national health care doesn't work, why is Canadian life expectancy two years longer than ours?

If our hodgepodge of private systems and plans works so well, why do 40,000 Americans die annually because they don't have health insurance?

Why does the wealthiest, most powerful nation in history rank 33rd in infant mortality? Why isn't our infant mortality rate the lowest instead of the 33rd lowest?

Why don't the voters in Canada, Britain, Western Europe and Japan reject their national health systems? Since those countries all have free, secret-ballot elections the answer must be, because they don't want to.

Why should they? Their systems are successful - and their governments are closely involved.

The above isn't secret information. It's been said over and over in Newsweek, in various papers - including this one - and on network TV newscasts.

Eric Crooks, Bloomington