Speak Out 8/28/09

4-H leaders

IN response to the story "Cape County 4-H Achievement Day and County Fair": The children did a great job with the variety of items submitted. There is indeed much talent seen in these young leaders. Sharing their talents is a learning experience for them and their peers.

Lower rates

BANKS should lower home mortgage rates and pass along the lower rates they are paying to consumers. Do something to help people.

Red-tape medicine

I work in health care. The red tape and bureaucracy from Medicare is unbelievable. Medicare will deny a claim because it deems the treatment was unnecessary even if the patient's doctor believes it was medically necessary. This is a preview of how a national health care plan, administrated by the federal government, would treat all of us. The doctor's decision-making authority would be taken away. The doctor would have to treat based on guidelines set forth by a bureaucrat hundreds of miles away. Is this what you really want?

Stray dogs

MY outside dog was attacked by a big white stray dog. Scott City needs a dogcatcher to pick up all the strays. What if that dog had attacked a child?

Cash for Clunkers

THE Cash for Clunkers program seemed like a good idea in the beginning. Then some dealers started adding thousands of dollars to the sticker prices of new cars. How could they do this when the price of the car was clearly printed on the sticker?

Affordable care

ACCORDING to the Center for Responsive Politics, a nonpartisan group that tracks campaign contributions and lobbying expenditures, the pharmaceutical and health insurance industries have spent $1.38 billion since 2007 lobbying against a public-option health plan. Is it any wonder that we are getting so many negative responses against our right to public health care? I just turned 65 and signed up for Medicare. It will save me just over $10,000 a year in insurance premiums.

Better stewards

CAP and trade, a carbon tax or whatever you want to call it is coming and is necessary to cut down on pollution. Previous generations didn't think much about being good caretakers of our planet. Now, we have to, or we'll destroy it. Be a good citizen and quit carping and complaining about it.

Poor outcomes

FAR and away, we have the most expensive health care system in the industrialized world. However, except for the wealthy who can afford it, our outcomes on most leading health indicators are relatively poor. Morally speaking, we should be ashamed of our health care system.

USPS requirement

THERE have been several comments about the mailboxes in the sidewalks being built along Mount Auburn Road. The U.S. Postal Service requires a specific setback from the curb. That's why the mailboxes are where they are. The sidewalks still have plenty of room for pedestrians.

Emotion triumphs

WHY are Republicans winning on their attempt to stop any and all health care reform? They know that emotion triumphs reason every time. "Death panels" gets one's attention more than professorial discussions about cost savings, even though the death panel diatribes are dumb. It resonates with the gut.

Timely moral issue

DR. Linda Farley quit her job as emeritus professor in the Department of Family Medicine at the University of Wisconsin. She volunteered full time at a community health center for the homeless. She said, "The uninsured die because they don't have health insurance." The Bible has 3,000 references to helping the poor and one that says if you don't work, you don't eat. The score seems to be 3,000 to 1. That's why health care is the moral issue of our times.