After reading Dr. Mark Ryan’s Oct. 30 Op/Ed column [“Health Care: Only the Public Option Can Resuscitate Reform”], I felt compelled on behalf of Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield to address a few glaring inaccuracies that need to be corrected. First, Ryan incorrectly stated that WellPoint, the parent company of Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield in Virginia, made $61 billion in profit in 2008. The number Ryan used as profit was actually the revenue figure of a company with 40,000 employees and 34 million members. WellPoint’s actual profit in 2008 was $2.5 billion, which yielded a 4 percent profit margin. The net profit margin for the health insurance industry as a whole is generally 3 percent to 6 percent, ranking it 35th among 53 industries ranked by Fortune magazine.

The news article, “Virginia Tribes Closer to U.S. Recognition,“ claims Congress is getting ready to recognize six Indian tribes in Virginia plus the Lumbees in North Carolina. I do not know how many Lumbees there are but your article states that there are 3,000 members of the six Virginia tribes. You report that the group will divide $800 million.

Lincoln and Obama Have a Lot in Common
Editor, Times-Dispatch: Many comparisons have been made between Abraham Lincoln and Barack Obama. Now we can add one more: In May 1864, Lincoln ordered Union Gen. John Dix to “take possession by military force of the printing establishments of the New York World and Journal of Commerce and prohibit any further publication thereof. You are therefore commanded forthwith to arrest and imprison the editors, proprietors, and publishers of the aforementioned newspapers.“

Acknowledge Both Slavery and Civil War
Editor, Times-Dispatch: I endorse the comments of staff writer Michael Paul Williams, “Richmond Is Right Place for Slavery Complex,“ that supported the development of the slave museum on the site of Lumpkins’ Jail near the Main Street Station. We should follow this by moving the White House of the Confederacy and its collection to the Second and Canal Streets property—the current site of the folk festival. This can be done without materially affecting future folk festivals.

White House Actions Cause Antennas to Rise
Editor, Times-Dispatch: I’m a firm believer in volunteerism. I’ve been involved in voluntary activities since my early teens. So while I am generally very cautious of government involvement in our private lives, I have no issue with its gentle support and promotion of volunteerism. (See President George H. W. Bush’s 1,000 Points of Light et al.) But if the government were to force it down my throat, well, that might be just a tad worrisome.

Increasing Awareness Will Conquer Cancer
Editor, Times-Dispatch: November is Pancreatic Cancer Awareness Month and I am writing because, so far, I am one of the 5 percent of pancreatic cancer patients who have survived. Ninety-five percent of those diagnosed with pancreatic cancer die within five years of their diagnosis and 76 percent die within the first year of their diagnosis. I was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer early in 2009 and after surgery and treatment am now fortunate to be cancer-free.

Car-Title Lenders Exploit Working Poor
Editor, Times-Dispatch: The major premise of Phil Kent’s guest Op/Ed column, that a car-title loan is an “honest transaction entered into between two willing parties,“ one of whom “alters his budget in order to pay back the money in a timely fashion,“ is either disingenuous or wishful thinking. As he points out, the majority of those who borrow against their car titles do so precisely because they have no other options and are desperate for funds to carry them over until their next paycheck.

GIs Are Winning Afghani Trust
Editor, Times-Dispatch: Americans must not turn a blind eye to the importance of the battle for freedom in Afghanistan. Many people are voicing their opposition to continuing the war. My feelings on the war are mixed. I find the brutality of war distasteful but I hesitate to withdraw my support.

Biomass Conversion Could Help the Bay
Editor, Times-Dispatch: The story of the Chesapeake Bay is a story of stormwater. When it rains, everything washes into the watershed. In the rural areas, we have over-fertilized farmlands dumping manure and nitrates into the rivers and estuaries. In the cities, we have toxins running off from impervious surfaces—such as asphalt, cement, and masonry—and ending up in the Bay. In both instances, we denude the land near the water, clearing the trees, plants, and native grasses that hold the soil in place—causing stream bank erosion and sediment to fill in the rivers and creeks. Old Dominion Electrical Cooperative’s Cypress Creek plan is just another contributor. It all, always, comes down to stormwater.

McDonnell Promotes Virginia Jobs
Editor, Times-Dispatch: Bob McDonnell, the future governor of Virginia, will execute plans to create new jobs in the commonwealth. In the past four years, the Virginia unemployment rate has increased by more than 120 percent—from 3 percent to about 7.1 percent (the highest rate of unemployment in 20 years). Also, there are 165,000 more Virginians unemployed in 2009 than in 2005. McDonnell plans to provide a $1,000 tax credit per job to businesses that create 50 new jobs, or even 25 new jobs in the economically depressed areas of the state.

Bad Timing Hurts Deeds’ Run for Office
Editor, Times-Dispatch: A recent poll produced by the folks at Gallup has shown that Americans identify themselves as 40 percent conservative, 36 percent moderate, and 20 percent liberal. Until 2008, the conservatives and moderates were within one point of each other; however, conservatives have slowly been gaining since the election of President Obama.

Idea Is Good; Where Is Money?
Editor, Times-Dispatch: Democratic candidate Creigh Deeds has the right mindset on his Virginia Forward scholarship program: rewarding students who have received good grades throughout high school. This would be a great thing to implement if we were not in such a huge state deficit and federal recession.

Cuccinelli’s Views Are Archaic and Misplaced
Editor, Times-Dispatch: While Bob McDonnell’s thesis has gotten plenty of news coverage, I’m surprised that almost nothing has been written about Ken Cuccinelli, the Republican nominee for attorney general. As a state senator, Cuccinelli declared, “you can’t have safe homosexual sex,“ and he once called a George Mason sexual education event an example of “moral depravity.“ These archaic views have no place in a Virginia statewide office.

Deeds Has Logical Transportation Solution
Editor, Times-Dispatch: With a need for solutions for Virginia’s infrastructure system, Creigh Deeds and Bob McDonnell have proposed two different resolutions for Virginia’s traffic jam. McDonnell’s proposition seemed superior to Deeds’ at first, but having taken time to look over both of their transportation solution proposals, I’ve come to acknowledge Deeds as having a plan that will work.

Use Actual Data To Verify Results
Editor, Times-Dispatch: The editorial, “Tort Retort,“ depends for its validity on a Congressional Budget Office estimate that $54 billion would be saved by restricting legal responsibility for medical error through tort reform. One factor is an assumed monetary savings by “lowering insurance premiums” although no explanation is given of how insurance companies would be persuaded to lower premiums—unless malpractice insurance was rendered unnecessary by completely eliminating legal responsibility.