Consumers do better with choices

From: John Norman, Buffalo

When it comes to the health care debate, most people agree that we need freedom of choice and competition. By this free market approach we can bend the cost curve on health care expenses in this country. This is why we need a public option.

Health insurance premiums have more than doubled over the last ten years while middle-class incomes have fallen far behind these increasing costs. Unless there are some changes to these health insurance costs, middle-class families will not be able to afford health care insurance by 2020.

One of the greatest drags on our economy now is the high cost of health care and health care insurance. Fifty percent of the bankruptcies in this country are because of unpaid hospital and doctor bills. The status quo has to go.

If the health care proposals being considered in Congress pass to cover more citizens, they will reduce uncovered emergency care costs. People now covered by health care plans are paying over $1,000 per year for those people not covered using the emergency care system.

It is also argued that we, as a country, have a moral obligation to provide a medical care system for all of our citizens. We are the only major industrial nation in the world that does not provide a medical care coverage for all its people. If other countries can do it, why can’t we?

Opponents of the changes to the medical care system claim we have he best medical system in the world. Studies have shown, even though we spend more per capita, we have poorer health care outcomes than many other countries.

The World Health Organization has rated us 37th in quality health care, in spite of our fine health care facilities and highly trained medical personnel. We will improve our world-wide ranking in health care if all our citizens have health care coverage.

Contact your senators and representatives in Congress and urge them to pass those health care changes which we desperately need and is best for America. Consumers do better when there is choice and competition.

Telecommuting saves money

From: Grace Baltich, Hanover

When are our Wright County Commissioners Pat Sawatzke, Jack Russek, and Dick Mattson going to get into this century?

Other commissioners proposed a pilot project for telecommuting, but Sawatzke, Russek, and Mattson voted it down, despite evidence from other counties that telecommuting saves money and allows human services workers to handle an increased case load.

Shouldn’t the commissioners be pursuing and approving evidence-based best practices and efforts to save the county money? Just because three workers who would pilot this project would not be in the office every day where Sawatzke, Russek, or Mattson could micromanage them, doesn’t mean we should set aside cost savings and efficiency.

With current technology, many public and private employers such as Sherburne and Hennepin Counties and Best Buy have long surpassed Wright County in getting into this century and have employees telecommuting.

President not social coordinator in chief

From: Joan Neururer, Waverly

An ever-increasing, majority of Americans don’t want a complete overhaul of our health care system. Sixty-eight percent of American voters have health care coverage they rate as good to excellent. Forty-one percent of voters favor health care reform, while 56 percent are opposed to health care reform.

In a falling trend, 49 percent of the voters approve of the job President Obama is doing and 51 percent disapprove of the job he is doing. Thirty percent strongly approve and 39 percent strongly disapprove of the job he is doing. That gives President Obama a presidential index rating of minus nine. All these percentages come from the latest Rasmussen Poll.

When the Herald Journal comes out Oct. 5, it is likely there will be a drop in his approval rating. He gave a sophomoric, anti-America speech at the UN, was soft on Iran, broke treaties with allies, gave up missile defense, and can’t decide what to do in Afghanistan. Our young people are dying over there and he has only talked to the commander of operations once in the last 70 days.

He did, however, find time to golf many times. He did find time to go on vacation and go on the Letterman show a few times. He is finding time to fly to Copenhagen to plead the case for a Chicago hosting of the Olympics. He needs to get his priorities straight. He is commander in chief, not social coordinator in chief.

In the meantime, this president wants to spend money we don’t have on drastically changing a health care system of which 68 percent of American voters are happy. The problem is that this is not about health care reform; it’s about control.

Obama wants to control every facet of our lives. If he were really interested in lowering the cost of health care, he would be calling for Tort reform. He would be calling for an end to frivolous lawsuits. Oh, I forgot, he couldn’t do that because that would anger a big group of his supporters, trial lawyers.

If President Obama and the Democrats really wanted a bi-partisan health care reform they would look at the many health care plans and amendments put forth by Republicans.

There are enough Democrats in the House and Senate to pass any bill put before them. It hasn’t been done because many Democrats know it would be political suicide. They don’t want to take a blame for the health care travesty they are trying to foist on the American people.