Important step in health care reform

The United States is the wealthiest nation on earth. We spend one sixth of that wealth on health care. Yet, the World Health Organization ranks America’s health care system 36th in the world. Americans are paying more for health care but getting less. What can be done to right our course and enact meaningful reform?

An important first step would be forbidding insurance companies from denying care based on a “pre-existing condition.”

Motivated by profit, health care companies attempt to find ways to charge more in premiums and pay less in claims. The best way to do this is prohibiting the people most likely to file claims from buying into the system.

The people most in need of care are denied coverage because insurance companies don’t want to pay for that care. But someone only makes things worse by avoiding treatment for a pre-existing condition because he or she is uninsured. When a pre-existing medical condition turns into a medical emergency, it costs the system and everyone paying into it much more. Why?

Legally, no one can be denied treatment in an emergency room, but hospitals can’t treat people for free: Staff, tests, procedures, etc. all cost money. So instead hospitals disperse that cost by charging insurance companies more for services performed on the insured. Insurance companies then transfer those costs to consumers in the form of higher premiums.

But while this debate may be all dollars and cents to the industry, we’re also talking about people’s lives. The need for change echoes in the voices of those countless individuals victimized by a profit-driven industry while facing some of life’s most difficult challenges.

As both a moral and financial imperative, any reform must eradicate the pre-existing condition exclusion.

Tyler Murphy, Flatwoods



Beck is entitled to his opinions

I'm responding to the Sunday letter from Paul Callicoat concerning Glenn Beck. It seems pretty obvious that this man is neither a Beck fan nor a Beck viewer. If he watched his show, he would know that Glenn does not profess to be a newscaster. He is a news commentator, so he’s entitled to give his opinions on the news topics he covers, but he also has an excellent team of investigators and researchers who provide him the facts to back up his stories and his opinions of those stories.

Glenn Beck truly loves this country. Never once has he brought racism into his lexicon, unless it is simply to report the media's accusations of racism against anyone who takes a different stand than Washington's. Glenn is a true constitutional preservationist (unlike many politicians), and we conservatives appreciate his devotion to that cause.

I’m not trying to sound like a Beck groupie, but I sincerely hope that Glenn and other conservative commentators are able to wake up America to see the layers of corruption and levels of misinformation being disseminated to the public by many of the pathetic federal elected officials.

Don't forget, Mr. Callicoat — freedom of speech gives you the right to disagree with Glenn and me, just like I disagree with you, but it doesn't make me hate you simply because we disagree. Free speech is still a freedom we Americans are entitled to express, thanks to the liberties our forefathers fought for, and our troops continue to fight for today all over the world. God bless you, Mr. Callicoat, and God Bless America.

Debbie Jones, Ashland



Health care reform will pass, if ...

If President Obama reads every line of the health care reform bill and rejects items that are not practical, as he promised; if the middle class taxes are not raised, as he promised; if we can keep our present health care insurance, as he promised; if health care insurance companies are not run out of business, as he promised; if abortions are not paid for by the federal goverment, as he promised; if illegal aliens are not covered, as he promised; if Medicare benefits are not changed, as he promised; if the cost of health care reform bill does not increase the debt, as he promised; if health care bill is not a one-payer system run by the government. If President Obama keeps his promises, I believe the voters will more likely support the health care reform bill and both sides of Congress will pass the bill.

Norm Camp, Russell