Vaccine shortage and health care reform

If all these children are dying from H1N1 and no vaccinations are available at this time, is this an example of how the government will run health care? I wonder if Barack, Nancy and Harry were able to get a flu shot yet? I moved here from Canada and couldn’t wait to get back to the United States so I could have a doctor again — so much for that.

J. RONEY
Loma

Reform should include non profit insurers

On Oct. 24, an article in The Daily Sentinel stated that Rep. John Salazar had asked Howard Dean to remove his name as one supporting the public option from Dean’s Web site. Is Salazar aware the United States is the only major country in the world that permits health insurers to make a profit and thereby cause the problems with people losing their insurance, because keeping their insurance would lower the insurer’s profits? To put this nation’s health care system in perspective relative to the rest of the world, read T.R. Reid’s “The Healing of America.”

We cannot afford health care reform without competition from a non profit insurer. Why do the Blue Dogs have so much trouble understanding that?

A non profit organization does not have to cost the taxpayer anything once it is set up and running. It would charge premiums that would necessarily be less expensive than for-profit insurers because it wouldn’t have to sell its product, would have far lower administrative cost and would not have to pay dividends to stockholders. Every other country in the world understands this. Why don’t the Blue Dogs?

Since 20 percent to 30 percent of the $2.5 trillion the country spends each year on health care is soaked by the insurance industry with no contribution to our well-being, you don’t have to be an economist to understand that replacing for-profit insurance providers with non profit insurers would save us a tremendous amount of money. The administrative costs of Medicare are only a few percent.

A majority of Americans want a public option. Rep. Salazar should vote for the passage of the public option and urge his colleagues in Congress to follow his example. He should either support the formation of a non profit insurance organization or plan on finding a new job in 2011.

Salazar should represent his constituents, not the health insurance companies.

JACK KINGSLEY
Grand Junction

McInnis needs to look
beyond the Western Slope

So Scott McInnis wants to get back into politics, this time in the governor’s job.

This would be the very same Scott McInnis who, years ago, during a very trying time for the Colorado Division of Wildlife over chronic wasting disease in deer and elk, said that he thought CWD would be contained on the Eastern Plains because of the Rocky Mountains. I, at that time wrote to this paper to point out just how preposterous that assumption was. Born in Glenwood Springs, McInnis should have known better.

Those who represent the people of Colorado should be mindful of the problems the state has the responsibility to control. That would be the whole state, not just the Western Slope. If you see a problem, and don’t either do something meaningful to correct it, or rattle the cages of those who have that responsibility, (the pine beetle infestation comes to mind) you don’t belong in the governor’s mansion.

I believe that Josh Penry is someone who will see the forest through the trees, and will give us better leadership in Colorado. Josh Penry will get my vote.

DAVID F. ZULIAN
Grand Junction

This entry was posted on Sunday, November 1st, 2009 at 2:25 pm and is filed under Printed letters. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.