Letters to the Editor: On Health Care, Same Strategy Is Repeated

On Health Care, Same Strategy Is Repeated
Editor, Times-Dispatch: The health care market needs to be adjusted, and there are a number of ways to do it. However, allowing the federal government to offer a taxpayer-funded plan should not be one of them.

The examples used by supporters of a federal government plan are Medicare and Medicaid. First, Medicare and Medicaid both run substantial deficits and will continue to do so long into the future -- certainly not a strong endorsement for their effectiveness. Plus, as a government plan, they can lose money and have the taxpayers pick up the difference. How is that competitive? The free-market plans can't simply access taxpayer money to pay for their losses.

Another competitive advantage the government has is that, because it can virtually require it through regulation, the government plan pays providers (hospitals, physicians, etc.) less than the free-market plans in 48 states. Providers that can't make ends meet with the government level of reimbursement then cover that shortfall by raising rates to those of the free-market-based plans.

This whole ruse about the government plans "competing" with free-market plans is clever camouflage to get support. Congress understands that government-run health care is not popular for a large percentage of the population. It simply wants to take this path to get a government health plan started, knowing full well that it will simply force out any free-market competitors over a few years.

How do I know this? Because the people pushing for a government health care program now are the same people who changed the rules and reduced revenue to run the Medicare Choice plans (insurance-carrier-run Medicare plans that competed with standard Medicare) out of the market in the 1990s and want to destroy the new alternative Medicare Advantage plans now. Actions do speak louder than words and are a better indicator of what these officials will do in the future.

Charlie Crowder.
Glen Allen.

The Times-Dispatch Editorial Page. The Letters to the Editor provide readers varying degrees of wit, wisdom, and insight. One that caught my eye was from Rodney Horst: "Natural Selection Does Not Result in Evolution."

Several years ago there was a court case in Dover, Penn., and the forces of both sides descended upon the small town. Some interesting facts came out in the trial. One was that evolution is scientifically provable, and there is ample hard evidence to that fact. Evolutionary science is a growing body of information that offers insight into the workings of nature and the adaptability of species to change. This concept is not an attack on God, but instead a recognition that much of His work remains to be discovered.

On the other side were those like Horst who have bought the idea that evolution could not be the work of God because it conflicts with Scripture. They overlook the fact that those who wrote and revised Scripture did so based on their knowledge at that time. They did not write of dinosaurs because they did not know of them. To them the Earth was flat and the stars and sun revolved around it.

If new evidence conflicts with biblical conclusions, it should not be taken as an attack on God, but rather an expansion of the majesty of God's work. We know dinosaurs existed, but their existence is not mentioned in Scripture. How can it be said that God created everything, but not give him credit for the dinosaurs or the vast reaches of space that have been discovered? I like the position author Michael Dowd expressed in the title of his book, Thank God for Evolution.

J. Richard Ganahl.
Midlothian.

Now, I know he deserves some punishment because he deceived church members and an FBI agent. However, 185 years is quite a lot for someone who didn't murder, rape, or physically harm anyone at all. He didn't even embezzle money from innocent people. And yet this person might face a longer jail sentence than Bernie Madoff and the two teens involved in the Taliaferro case combined -- just because he sent hate mail slandering . . . himself.

It seems to me that in our haste to uphold the ideals of honesty and justice, we've become a tad bit excessive and unjust ourselves.

Cynthia Andrian.
Glen Allen.