Health care: ode to Obama and boos to Burr

Here's another batch of health care letters.

Agreed. Our country needs health care reform. Both parties do agree on this issue. We need to lower costs associated with health care (both insurance and medicines, doctors, hospitals, diagnostics, etc.). But when one party controls the means and excludes the other, then this is no longer a representative republic. It is a dictatorship.

One party saying that we know what is best for you to the total exclusion of the other. Even with the other major entitlements (Social Security and Medicare) there was support from the other party. Our Founding Fathers would be appalled at the behavior of our government. The government is incapable of running a business.

Just look at Medicare and Social Security. Every expert agrees that they are in trouble. Do we honestly believe that universal healthcare will be any different?

Larry Brieaddy
Rolesville

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We hear about the gap in health care coverage. There is a gap in coverage that must be addressed. This gap is the working poor who have no health insurance and some others, notably those between jobs.

What’s interesting is this subset of individuals falls into gaps in every other aspect of life, not just going without medical insurance. For instance, they live oftentimes in high crime, dangerous areas. Do we provide them with a subsidy to move to another section? I know. Don’t be ridiculous. Another example: They rely on public transportation, which means long waits in cold, wet weather. Do we subsidize them to eliminate this transportation gap? No.

Gaps exist everywhere. The enormity of the problem suggests that little can be done. There are just so many working poor. Due to the recession, the ranks are growing, not declining. Yet medical care is one thing, one area we seize upon to address.
Life for the working poor in this country is very difficult every day. Even so, it’s better than life in Haiti or life in Mexico or other places where the down and out face greater challenges.

Robert Peele
Rocky Mount

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In response to the letter “A day’s free care,” I hope the writer was promoting satire. Unfortunately, I fear not. I have to ask whether the writer is willing to work for free 20 percent of the time to hold on to his job. Unless he also thinks attorneys, accountants, hair stylists, etc. should also provide free services one day a week to hold onto their licenses, he needs to rethink this great idea.

While I agree more focus should be placed on the care provided, a better idea would be to pay providers for improved outcomes. Think of how many people you see on a regular visit to your doctor. Many of those same people would be required to help the uninsured obtain health care. Who pays them?

Forcing people to work for free is indentured servitude at best and slavery, which is no longer legal, at worst. Many health care providers already volunteer their services. Does the writer?

Lesli M. W. Doares
Holly Springs

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I believe that in forcing the beginning of the basis for health care reform, using the process of reconciliation, our president has decided that he will not allow the health care crisis to remain smoldering in the coals of resentment.

As things stand today we, as a nation, are moving forward in the long process of solving what had seemed to be to many of us, an utterly intractable problem. The health care reform legislation that President Obama has signed into law is a start, and it is place to stand and a place upon which to build. Individuals and groups will attempt to sabotage the health care reform legislation that has passed, yet it is my conviction that the opposition cannot succeed.

I say this from my position of seeing what I believe to be reality. The reality I see is Republican sentiment, bent on distorting and destroying any and all progress made by our president and his administration. That Obama is a person of color may have some small part in the issue; however. I do not believe that race is the reason such vitriol is now spilling out.

I believe that the Republican Party has been extremely complacent, and pleased to have had a president who has served the value of the dollar rather than the value of the individual over the past several years. In Obama, the party of opposition sees and senses a real threat. The threat is that of a leader who is thoughtful, articulate and extraordinarily intelligent. Yet, more than Obama’s intellect and his adroit handling of the myriad problems our nation faces, the threat he poses to the Republican Party is who Obama is: an American president who is unafraid.

Obama is not cowed by the false power demonstrated by weak, fearful and aggressive groups and individuals. Americans are blessed to have a President who bows to no false power in the form of person or institution.

I think that what we see today, in the form of the new health care reform legislation, is a beginning. It is a beginning that will be built upon during President Obama’s first term in office, and I pray during his second term as well. I urge all Americans to take heart.

Kristina Fowler
Raleigh

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Is it wise to bring many more onto Medicaid? Medicaid is a poverty-based health insurance. Medicaid beneficiaries must maintain a low level of income and assets in order to continue receiving the benefit. Too many who are currently on Medicaid voice fear of going back to work, accepting inheritance, or even marrying as these may result in loss of vital health care.

Does it really make sense to bring millions more onto Medicaid during a recession? There are many who will curtail work and finances to stay on Medicaid because there is nothing in the new health care bill to check health care premiums in the private sector or health care costs. The unintended consequences of this will be a whole new (and much larger) culture of poverty as real as the one that exists now for anyone on Medicaid.

Benna Thompson
Spring Lake

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I’m writing to voice my displeasure with Sen. Richard Burr’s recent actions and your paper’s handling of the story (“Burr joins health law protest,” March 25). The actions taken by Burr could hardly be described as mere protest, and your headline should have conveyed what he did more accurately. A protest on the senator’s part could have come in the form of a public denunciation of the bill or an endorsement, along with his brethren in the House, to the N.C. attorney general supporting the filing of a legal challenge to the Bill. Disruption of the Senate’s business showed an appalling disrespect to both the service commanders (who had traveled halfway across the globe for the scheduled hearing) and the American taxpayers who end up footing the bill for his misguided buffoonery.

The senator’s explanation for halting the hearing – I have no personal objection to continuing. There is objection on our side of the aisle. Therefore, I would have to object – speaks to the man’s cowardice. If he’s going to disrupt the business of the Senate and waste taxpayer money, he should at least have the courage to stand up for his actions.

Burr should immediately apologize for his childish behavior – to the service commanders, to his North Carolina constituents, and to the American public. He should also consider distancing himself from the lemmings to the sea approach that his party has taken and distinguish himself by doing what he was sent to Washington to do – conduct the people’s business in a professional manner. Holding up progress on something totally unrelated to the issue of his protest serves only to bring shame to the senator and embarrassment to the wonderful people of North Carolina.

Carl Bandolshesr
Henrico

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As I hear the news about the Congressional Budget Office’s preliminary estimate and the gimmickry around the delayed benefits with immediate taxes, I’m struck by the double standard upon which I have to recognize revenue in my business and how the CBO concludes the health care bill reduces the deficit.

I own and operate a small privately held business in Cary. My business, even though it is private, is increasingly burdened by Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX) government regulatory compliance.

Sarbanes-Oxley was driven primarily to force uniform and fair disclosure of companies’ financial positions to investors. One of the major reforms is the requirement around revenue recognition. We and other public and private businesses cannot recognize revenue, even though we are paid in advance, until we have delivered the service for which that revenue was received.

So by the government’s own SOX regulations, the CBO would be able to recognize only the years of revenues for which the government has delivered health care services. The rest of those revenues would be recognized as deferred revenues, which are a liability on the balance sheet.

Lee Prevost
Morrisville

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Shame on Sen. Richard Burr and other GOP lawmakers for wasting taxpayer time and money by stalling and preventing committee hearings! At what expense were commanders flown to Washington from South Korea and Hawaii to discuss Pentagon needs for the upcoming year? For that matter, shame on lawmakers who had so little regard for their time. How many more soldiers and civilians will die in Afghanistan because hearings about police trainers were delayed? The great state of North Carolina deserves better representation and manners.

Shame on the nameless thugs who use threats and actual violence in an attempt to sway the opinion of elected leaders! I don’t care which side of the fence you fall on with the health care reform issue, such behavior is disgusting and disrespectful. What sort of message does it send to our troops who are fighting to spread the ideas of peaceful democracy in places where violence is used to quiet the voices of opposition? Are we honoring their memories or sacrifices when we behave like thugs? No, they deserve better, too.

Heidi Swygard
Chapel Hill