Thank you for highlighting (again) the crisis in primary care [”Primary care in crisis,” Gazette, July 27].

As the board chair of Mass-Care: The Massachusetts Campaign for Single Payer Health Care, I appreciate being quoted, but I want readers to understand the context of my statement regarding the elimination of insurance companies and the rationalization of health care as a public system, not a bunch of industries. Professor Gerald Friedman of the University of Masachusetts Amherst estimates a savings of about 30% of current spending, after expansion of primary care and other needs (masscare.org/economic-analysis/).

In recent years, thousands of Gazette readers have voted to instruct their state representative “to vote for legislation to create a single payer system of universal health care that provides all Massachusetts residents with comprehensive health care coverage including the freedom to choose doctors and other health care professionals, facilities, and services, and eliminates the role of insurance companies in health care by creating an insurance trust fund that is publicly administered.”

This year, voters in 11 districts will see that on their ballot, including three western Mass. districts: 3rd Berkshire (South County); 3rd Hampden (almost all of Agawam and towns west and northwest); and 4th Hampden (Southampton and almost all of Westfield).

Thank you for your attention to this vital issue.

Jon Weissman

Granby