Health care not a commodity



Today, the “Diane Rehm Show,” on National Public Radio, did a one-hour discussion of President Obama’s health care speech. If there is any lingering doubt about whether the Health Insurance Companies will play fair, it was definitively addressed by a caller from Michigan. The caller was a small business owner and bought private insurance for her family on the open market. She stated that she had a Blue Cross Blue Shield policy. She had just received a notice of renewal for her health insurance which was going up 33 percent. She rightly stated that as a business owner she could never stay in business and do that to her own customers. What was especially interesting is the fact that the letter indicated that the rise in premium was because they now have to cover people with pre-existing conditions.

It is hard to believe that a business can do that based on a lie. There is no reform that has been passed. They are not currently under any obligation to cover people with pre-existing illness, and we all know they probably don’t. They are simply using the very specter of reform to gouge their customers.

We need a national health care plan or at minimum a vigorous public option. It will be the only way that we can hold the insurance industry’s feet to the fire. If mere mention of change prompts a 33 percent increase, do we really think that they are ready to help Americans live healthier lives?

The facts remain the same and are not repeated enough in the debate. The U.S. spends twice as much on health care as every other developed nation and we rank 37th in health care outcomes. Do we have the best health care system in the world?

Well, we have the best infrastructure, but if citizens have no access to the care then it makes little difference how sophisticated we are. We need to see access to health care as a patriotic duty. Why should the richest nation on earth have millions of citizens going bankrupt and languishing without appropriate care?

Get the money grubbers out. Health care is not a commodity it is vital to the citizenry of this country.

— Susan Ryan, Floyds Knobs



County is responsible to provide a Youth Shelter



It is the county’s responsibility to provide a safe shelter for these children. The choice is whether to provide it in Floyd County at taxpayer’s expense or somewhere outside the county at tax-payer’s expense. It is a buy or rent type decision. However, there is an important advantage to using the facility located in the county; that is it puts the children near to their family and relatives. The goal of the Youth Shelter is to return the children to their families or place them with relatives. Thus it makes sense to keep them near their family and relatives.

In a Tribune news story by Chris Morris, it is stated that the site chosen for construction of the new youth shelter is inside the Sam Peden Community Park, between Shelter House 4 and the High Park Apartments. The article makes it clear that, while not opposed to locating the new youth shelter in the park, the Parks and Recreation Board members were “not thrilled with” the group’s choice of the location in the park.

A Youth Shelter in addition to providing shelter for the children must provide activities for them. Matthew Nash suggested three alternative in his article in The Tribune (September 4), “the old Kroger location on Charlestown Road,” “the site of the former Camille Wright Pool,” and “Binford Park.”

A store front is totally inadequate; it would provide no possibility of providing athletic facilities. Likewise, after the new youth shelter was built, there would be little or no room for athletic or recreational facilities at the Camille Wright site. While Binford Park does have some athletic and recreational facilities, there is one of each type. This would be inadequate for the patrons the park and the children from the youth shelter to share.

The youth-shelter represents an investment in the future youth of Floyd County. This is an investment in both financial and human terms. If these children are not given the proper environment to develop a sense of responsibility to the community, they will not become productive members of that community and unfortunately may have to be institutionalized at taxpayer expense. Troubled children often become troubled adults who are unable to function in society and are eventually forced onto the streets. How can we expect children to show more respect for the community than the community shows for them?

— Jim Woeppel, New Albany