In an editorial written by Nicholas Kristof, which appeared in the Nov. 6 Greensboro News and Record, Kristof gives the following statistics, among others: “The U.S. ranks 31th in life expectancy according to the latest World Health Organization figures. We rank 37th in infant mortality and 34th in maternal mortality.” And the reason our life expectancy after age 65 is higher than those living in other industrialized countries? “That’s because Americans above age 65 actually have universal health care coverage: Medicare. Suddenly, a diverse population with pockets of poverty is no longer such a drawback.”
Those who suggest that living in the U.S. today is becoming comparable to living in Germany during World War II, and I am speaking of those who suffered and died in concentration camps, know nothing about what the people in that pile of corpses endured! Shame! Shame! Shame!
Laura Boyles
High Point
Washington officials should answer these questions
It would be very interesting to know how many of our elected officials in Washington would have the spine to answer these two questions with a simple “yes or no”:
• Is it wrong that everyone deserves good, reasonable, affordable health care?
• Does anyone out there actually think that without a public option the health insurance industry will allow affordable health care for all of us?
If their answer is yes to these questions, then there is something very wrong with this picture.
Robert Barnett
High Point
Thanks for supporting the health care reform bill
I sincerely thank all the representatives for standing up for the people and voting for the health care reform bill. Here in my neck of the woods, a big shout out to Mel Watt. Thanks Mel!
Now if the Senate can get in line with what the people want and need and resist the pressure from insurance companies and lobbyists, we will be on the road to real help for the people by the people.
Christy Lockhart
Thomasville
This health care reform bill would be too costly
I do not think that they should pass this health care bill. We are paying too much already. This is just some way to take some of the cost off of the government and put on the people. I know we are already paying for the people that do not work, but this is a way that the people that work will have to pay more. I do vote and it will be remembered when that time comes.
Jessie Hall
Sophia
Public option will cost the taxpayers greatly
Rep. Howard Coble should be congratulated for having the courage to vote against the more than trillion-dollar House-passed health care reform bill. HR 3962 is 2,000 pages of costly new federal requirements that clearly violate major campaign promises. The measure will not reduce health care costs and, instead, will add to our nation’s burgeoning deficit, severely impact small businesses, and millions will lose their current coverage.
The Lewin Group found that the public option could cause nearly six of every 10 Americans with private coverage – roughly 118 million people – to switch to public insurance. Unlike health insurers, federal insurance programs don’t pay state taxes, which will cause a severe dip in state tax revenues. The recession has already left many deeply in the red and a public option would make states’ terrible fiscal situations even worse. Congress has rightly set out to both expand insurance coverage and reduce health care costs for all Americans. But, without real and effective measures to reduce health are costs, neither goal is attainable.
Cheryl A. Dukes
High Point
The writer is president of Triad Association of Health Underwriters.
Reform bill shouldn’t require all to have insurance
If the health care reform bill recently passed by the House of Representatives becomes law, most Americans will be required to have medical insurance. Some individuals will be fined if they don’t buy insurance while others will receive subsidies.
I am all for every American having access to affordable (or even free) health care. But will giving insurance companies this stimulus package lower medical costs? The insurance industry doesn’t need a bailout. If you want to legally own a home or drive a car, you have to buy insurance.
“Big Insurance’’ is sitting on billions of dollars, and now it looks like Congress will give them billions more. Individuals shouldn’t be required to have insurance.
Chuck Mann
Greensboro
We need health care in order to be healthier workers
As a constituent, I would like for all our representatives to vote on this health care reform bill. A vote on this bill is for the one thing most Americans need – to stay well and healthy so if and when they get back to work, they can perform their job. Please let us all do the best for our country. A vote on this bill is for the good and the right reason.
Elizabeth Mundy
High Point
Fix health care system with deregulation, competition
I am very much against health care reform. It does not seem that any administration has been able to fix the Medicare and Medicaid crisis that has been a problem for years. These entities are already bankrupt and this is just a Ponzi scheme to prop them up.
Fix health care by deregulating over state lines. Let private health care compete to lower rates. The basic law of supply and demand works here and has been a proven law since the beginning of commerce. It’s hard to fight something that simple that has a proven track record.
Jail time ... are you kidding me? What has happened to the Constitution? Where is government run health care in that. Wow.
Mary Morgan
High Point
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