Private health insurance companies are under fire for refusing to sell insurance to people who might get sick and for denying claims to existing clients. The problem is "adverse selection" - healthy people not wanting to pay the medical costs of sick people. Insurance companies want the healthy ones.

Sen. Max Baucus, who took $2.4 million in the last election cycle from insurance and drug companies, hospitals, doctors and HMOs, wants the IRS to force us all to buy private insurance policies. It is spelled out in his "Description of Policy Options" for health care. Call his office at 657-6790 for a copy.

Most Americans favor the "single payer" option, which makes government the primary insurer. Baucus says this is "off the table."

Alternatively, many of us are fighting for a "public option," which would allow us to buy into public programs like Medicare and the VA (at cost). These programs are efficient, don't turn people away and are not driven by greed.

Health insurance companies know that if we are given that option, many (if not most) of us will opt out of private coverage. So Baucus appears to be taking the "public option" off the table, too.

Baucus wants an even bigger, more powerful and intrusive IRS. He does not want us to have a choice - we either buy insurance from his campaign financiers, or we pay a stiff fine. The man is clearly not a reformer, but rather just another insurance salesman.

Mark Tokarski

Bozeman