Some people are attempting to derail President Obama’s health
care reform plan by making the false charge of
”
socialized medicine.
”
Dear Editor,
Some people are attempting to derail President Obama’s health care reform plan by making the false charge of “socialized medicine.”
We could argue about which system would better serve Americans, the free-enterprise model used here or the socialized model used in most advanced countries. However, President Obama isn’t suggesting socialized medicine! Time and effort would be better spent noting the problems of our current system and seeking to fix them:
– Vastly more money spent per person
– Mediocre results in terms of infant mortality, longevity, and other measures
Why is our system so expensive? Because private insurance companies pay generous dividends to stockholders and exorbitant salaries to executives. This is money which could be better spent on treating sick people.
With our sophisticated medical practices, why are the nation’s results so poor? Because people with no insurance can’t afford regular medical care, foregoing prevention to visit hospital emergency rooms in times of crisis.
Our health care system needs reform:
– The most common cause of personal bankruptcy is unpaid medical bills.
– If our insurance comes from employers, nearly everyone is at risk of becoming uninsured during this economic downturn.
– Insurance companies thrive by not covering people in questionable health and use technicalities to deny payment when policy-holders need treatment.
This health care problem must be solved now. We need to reform our health care system so that those who like and can afford their present insurance can keep it while providing a lower-cost government plan (“public option”) which will meet the needs of the currently uninsured and other Americans who are receptive to trying a more efficient model of coverage. It is time at all Americans can have the security of guaranteed health care.
Chuck Flagg, Morgan Hill
Government ‘death panel’? We’ve already got an insurance one …
Dear Editor,
Former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin is concerned about older people having to appear in front of a government “death panel” describing it as “downright evil”.
I suppose as a Republican she would want privately held corporate death panels. Oh wait! We have that already. That’s the insurance industry. Except you don’t get to appear, you just get denied.
I think what is downright evil is what the insurance companies are doing to America.
Marc Perkel, Gilroy
Taxpayers dare not give away the few controls we still do have
Dear Editor,
I was fascinated by Lisa Pampuch’s column, referring to the “Smoke and Mirror” budget Sacramento is fooling around with. Her initial analysis is accurate, but I disagree with several of her conclusions.
First, we should never let the politicians have a simple majority to change our budgets and spending. The liberal spenders in our coastal cities will drive the taxpayers and the state into bankruptcy. Their philosophy seems to be to spend, spend, spend and tax someone else.
However, the taxation issue always comes back to the middle class because that is where the revenue is, and the talk of taxing the wealthy never quite seems to happen.
Incidentally, this is one of the reasons so many high-income residents and corporations are fleeing California and going to other states. Our taxes are already ridiculous, and we all need to ensure that taxes are stopped where they are, and spending reduced until the budgets balance. My wife and I were in Wyoming two months ago, where gas is 50 cents a gallon cheaper. Guess why?
In our county, Gilroy, Morgan Hill and San Jose are all paying the price for excessive generosity to employees and retirees, resulting in budgets that are drastically out of balance. Private industries are dumping pensions right and left, whereas the unions that seem to control our city councils are getting wages and pensions far beyond what private industry can afford, and far beyond what the taxpayers will support.
Another issue that has rankled me for years is the word “entitled.” “I am entitled to welfare,” “I am entitled to food stamps,” “I am entitled to be supported by the taxpayers.” How have we gotten into the practice of supporting those who either can’t or won’t support themselves?
I compliment Lisa for addressing this complex issue, but the differences between the liberals and conservatives in Sacramento is so great, that the taxpayers dare not give away the few controls we have over their spending habits.
Readers, put your foot down: No new taxes. Demand that our representatives cut the spending to match the existing incomes, at the city, county and state levels.
W.R. Blakely, Morgan Hill
