Published: August 13, 2009 07:03 pm      

LETTERS: Aug. 14, 2009

Reader finds nothing merry about state fair ride costs



So Indiana State Fair officials are using discounts in an effort to combat the recession and make the fair affordable for families?

Maybe they should have discussed costs with the company that provides rides. One ride on the merry-go-round costs $3.75. We didn’t bother to check prices on the other rides, but explained to the disappointed children that they wouldn’t get to ride anything.

Those ride costs are no way to lure in families.

— Teresa Fisher, Jeffersonville



Reader claims flaws in health care proposal



A recent letter in The Evening News from Dr. Richard Gardner continued the misinformation campaign being waged in order to promote the total government takeover of our health care system.

While most reasonable persons would agree that our health care system needs some changes, the bill in the U.S. House of Representatives is tantamount to throwing the baby out with the bathwater.

Dr. Gardner asserts that Medicare is infinitely more efficient than private insurance and quotes some very questionable figures on administrative cost comparisons of Medicare and private insurance. While his 5 percent figure for Medicare is in line with most estimates, his 40 percent to 50 percent figure for private insurance is not remotely similar to the 15 percent to 22 percent quoted by most studies.

He may want to read: Benjamin Zycher, “Comparing Public and Private Health Insurance: Would a Single-Payer System Save Enough to Cover the Uninsured?” Manhattan Institute for Policy Research, October 2007.

In addition, Medicare recipients are by demographics older, more infirmed and likely to have chronic health problems that require greater health care expenditures. The higher expenditures mean that the 5 percent administrative costs actually amount to considerably higher costs per subscriber, according to the above study and others.

Costs aside, Dr. Gardner may be comfortable with government committees deciding his level of care. Recently, President Barack Obama was asked a question at a press conference by a man whose 100-year-old mother had received a pacemaker and it had given her five more years of quality life.

He asked if, under the proposed health care reform, she would have received the same care. The president answered that perhaps she would be told to go home and take a pain pill instead. If that is the level of compassion and care that will be provided by the appointed government committee, God help us.

Perhaps the idea of the federal government having real-time access to his bank accounts, another requirement of this bill, doesn’t bother Dr. Gardner either. Being a strong believer in the wisdom and foresight of our founding fathers in the crafting our Constitution, I feel most Americans will have a serious problem with the government forcing us to allow them access to our bank accounts without a court order and due process.

The intrusions on personal liberty contained in this bill go on and on, from choosing which health care insurer/provider you may use to forced intrusion into family privacy at the end of life with end-of-life consultations, at which time some government bureaucrat will decide whether or not to continue treatment or tell you it’s time to die.

Americans have made this country the envy of the world by determining their own destiny through knowledge and hard work. I urge all readers to look up the text of the proposed government health care takeover bill — HR 3200 — available at the Library of Congress Web site and read for yourself what is in it.

Don’t take my word for it, educate yourself to the misinformation being perpetrated upon the American people by those that want to dictate every aspect of your health care, life and death.

Then, call your representatives!

— Richard Reynolds, Borden