Medicare...

Here is another fine letter this morning regarding healthcare, specifically Medicare.
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We have a perfectly good, if underfunded, government-run - and potentially universal - health care system right now. It's called Medicare.

Let every American opt into Medicare at a fair and affordable rate.

Universal access to health care is an American right, not a privilege. Driving is a privilege. Accessing health care is not a choice - it is a necessity. It's a matter of life and death.

Therefore, if you respect life, if you are a right-to-lifer, if you are a compassionate conservative, you must support universal health care. And the only way we can achieve that is to take the profit motive out of the equation. Pay the medical service providers a fair wage, and stop throwing money at those who profit from the misery of their fellow man: the insurance companies.

It's the cost-effective alternative to the catastrophic-care system we have now, which gives us half the care as Europeans for twice the price."

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I worry that the Republicans and other right-wingers are not only blocking reasonable health care reform but they are tearing down the presidency of Barrack Obama as well. That would be tragedy for this country.

Strange noises

I've probably written on this subject previously but the sounds from my neighbor's apartment are a bit too much at times. Last night was especially bad. When these sounds were first heard I though he might be watching a war movie and had his home theatre system turned up to loud. Our common wall certainly does vibrate from these loud sounds but I can't identify them as to what they are. If they are from a war movie they are unlike any war movie I have ever seen as they are almost continuous only changing in intensity from time to time. They sound more like a rumbling sound not something from explosions from bombs and rockets. Another weird thing is that last night when I went outside (his windows were open) I could hear nothing on the walkway directly outside our apartments.

That guy is weird for many reasons, not just his loud stereo, and I would like to identify the source and nature of these sounds which have actually exacerbated a headache or two. I would like to complain to the property management company (we have no on-site manager) but they seem to be interested only in collecting the rent each month. That is certainly the case with the landlady and they are just following orders.

As for the loud sounds and vibrating wall, could he have some sort of electronic device (not the stereo) which is creating these rumbling and explosive sounds? If so, he is even weirder than I thought.

Let's Hear it for Medicare

Excellent letter this morning...
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"In all the angst about a government option for health care, Cynthia Tucker ("Shouting, stomping won't cure need for health reform," Insight, Aug. 9) reminds us that many Americans misunderstand the Medicare option.

As one who has received Medicare for 17 years, my experience calls for pure praise for this government-run, taxpayer-supported program.

Accessible? The service has never let me down. My fee-for-service Medicare lets me choose my own doctors and see them without precondition. The system pays all my medical bills except for routine physical and eye exams.

With a model like this, it's hard to understand the wave of suspicion facing a government option for health care."

CLAY LANE

Palo Alto

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The only problems we have with Medicare is that it is underfunded and Congress keeps borrowing/stealing from the Medicare fund for other things. Stop that "borrowing" and raise Social Security taxes and there won't be a Medicare funding problem.

Questions

If the USA can can afford to kill people through wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, and elsewhere, why can't it afford to heal people through health care for all? Well, if we would stop this participation in these wars we could afford a national health care system. Also, why do we always get involved with defending every piss ant country on this planet which gets in hot water with its neighbors? This is insane. We are not the world's policeman. Let's take care of our own people first.

Healthcare Access

Here is an excellent letter regarding healthcare in Great Britain which some people in the USA like to discount as being ineffective and call it socialism etc. Strange to me that Medicare received by seniors is not socialism but health care for all would be. Anyway, here is a letter for your consideration.
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"I write as a British citizen and supporter of my country's National Health Service because I am appalled by the lies that have been spread about the service in America.

Whilst it is far from perfect, the overwhelming majority of Britons would agree that the NHS provides a high-quality service.

In America, our health care system is deemed "socialist," but Britain is a capitalist society like any other in the West. The difference is that we do not feel something as basic as health care should be subject to market forces. The scaremongering by America's right about euthanasia for the elderly and "death panels" for disabled children is dangerous and absurd.

The reality in Britain is that elderly patients and parents of disabled children are free from the constant worry that their insurance won't cover the next round of treatment. They can rely on the state to provide.

Whilst the U.S. right wheels on eccentric conservatives such as Member of Parliament Daniel Hannan to denigrate our public health care, most of Europe looks on in incomprehension. To Europeans, it is obvious that free health care is the only fair system. We are just waiting for the world's largest superpower to catch up.

JOANNA HOWARD

Sheffield, Great Britain

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So wake up America. Do the right thing. Do not let the insurance companies and the pharmaceutical industry run our lives.

Health Care, Obamacare, Medicare, whatever

I certainly agree with Howard Dean on this issue and I also wonder how many people approaching the age of 65 will refuse Medicare simply because it is a government run program? People in this country are afraid of the government. It should be the other way around with the government fearing the people. Then, just maybe, something useful might be accomplished.

Butchered English

Here is another problem in this country (USA). People who live and work here do not know how to speak and write proper English. Take this line from a news story about a new Verizon service as seen on www.pcworld.com this morning.

Verizon first announced that it was trialing LTE services in two U.S. cities last February.

Damn it, there is no such word as "trialing". That should be "testing LTE services". What effing idiots. Yes it is a trial run but it involves testing. Don't try to change the whole damn language to fit your failings of simple high school English 101A.

Friggin' idiots!!!!!!!

Health Care

There are several good letters to the editor this morning. This is my favorite.

"Sarah Palin has really gone off the deep end this time. "Death panels"?

I work in the senior care field, everything from home care to hospice, and I can attest to the need for advance health care consultations.

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There is nothing worse than seeing 80-year-olds come home from the hospital incapacitated and angry because they were forced to receive treatments that they will never recover from.

Why? Because they lack an advance health care directive stating their wishes. If they want to be kept alive at all costs, financial, physical , emotional and mental, that can be spelled out in the directive, but in my experience, most do not want this and trust their children to respect their wishes.

Unfortunately, in the heat of the moment, those wishes often go to the wayside because of a difference in understanding or emotions. This is where the planning makes all the difference between a peaceful passing and a long, drawn-out and painful one.

This proposal needs to stay in the president's health care plan; it is the right thing to do for our seniors and their families."

I find it very interesting that people are making such a big issue about a government run health care program when they will be in one at age 65. It is known as Medicare.

Medicare is a single-payer plan which needs to be expanded to everyone and properly funded. Then and only then will we have proper health care coverage in this country.

DOS

What is it with the Internet today? Earlier today I had trouble with FaceBook. Now I am having trouble with G-Mail. If I could get my hands on those guilty of launching DOS attacks I would like to put my foot where the sun don't shine.

Healthcare Access

I agree with Ed Koch on this matter. We do need universal healthcare. If we don't get it we are no better than a Third World Country in my opinion.