We must protect health care system

At my recent high school reunion, our 60th for the Haverford (Pennsylvania) Township High School, everyone in the room by the life insurance tables prevailing at graduation had lived beyond their expectancy, including 47 of our original class of 120. The women were ahead by four years, and the men by seven years.

This situation arises because such insurance tables were constructed on the experience of our parents. Over our lives, medical care and nutritional practice have advanced substantially.

My father died of a myocardial infarction. I experienced exactly the same event at the same age, but I was returned to full health by the medical practice prevailing one generation later, all this 15 years ago.

The main fact I celebrate here is the wondrous advance in the life-long health status of Americans during my lifetime. It is a situation worth honoring and taking every care to protect.

NORRIS HANSELL

Champaign