In response to the letter writer who wrote that the recent Supreme Court decision was the compassionate thing to do (CDT Tuesday): Our health care debacle is not about compassion.

It is about finding smart solutions to raging health issues in this country. It is about a society of people in which 40 percent are obese, diabetes is rampant and medical procedures are abused and overused.

Certainly we should take care of our needy sick people. A compassionate society does nothing less.

But taxing people who can’t afford insurance? They can’t afford the tax either.

We will not solve this debacle until we attack the piece that is costing and causing most of the problem. The onus lies where it logically should: with the individual.

We must find ways for the American people to take responsibility for their own health. We need nutritional and fitness incentives that reach out and touch insurance premiums so that people are encouraged to be healthy. We need programs to teach our kids how to be healthy and fit. We need to show our food manufacturers that we will not buy unhealthy products.

When the Supreme Court has to cross lines from judicial to legislative government and rewrite legislation because it’s the compassionate thing to do, we are in deep trouble.

Where is the base of our Constitution? It has been completely ignored. We can do so much better than this.

Kathy DiMuccio State College