{"id":101357,"date":"2009-12-23T19:43:36","date_gmt":"2009-12-24T00:43:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/seattletimes.nwsource.com\/html\/northwestvoices\/2010581968_thehealthcareholidaywrapup.html?syndication=rss"},"modified":"2009-12-23T19:43:36","modified_gmt":"2009-12-24T00:43:36","slug":"the-health-care-holiday-wrap-up","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/101357","title":{"rendered":"The health-care holiday wrap-up"},"content":{"rendered":"

Winners and losers<\/strong><\/p>\n

As the health-care bill is near completion, we see there are winners and losers [\u201cGOP drops delays on health-care vote: Those states who get the bill for the health-care legislation and those states that have received special considerations because of their status in the Senate.<\/p>\n

Again our state suffers from a lack of representation in Washington, D.C. We received none of the special considerations that were given out there.<\/p>\n

This has happened over and over again.<\/p>\n

We misjudged Boeing with our politicians telling us that they will stay in our state without any more negotiations, even after Boeing gave fair warning by moving their headquarters and Internet business to Chicago years ago.<\/p>\n

We see Microsoft threatening to leave unless the business environment changes for the better; Verizon sent their data support to another state.<\/p>\n

We are so locked into the political correctness and party affiliation that we will continue to lose business, and the economy we once had will be replaced for a South Carolina-style economy, which these same congressional legislators continue to mock.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Larry Lundquist, Bellevue<\/em><\/p>\n

Lower the estate tax? Poor policy<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cPut health care aside and fix the economy\u201d [Opinion, editorial, Dec. 20] stated, \u201c[Congress] needs to lower the estate tax.\u201d<\/p>\n

That line is an amazing non sequitur to all other lines prior to this sentence. What is implied is that changing a tax policy, the effects of which would have minimal impact over the next two or three years, would be an important move to fix our very current ills.<\/p>\n

I can\u2019t imagine how this country operated so very well for years on an estate-tax level under a million dollars.<\/p>\n

Small business thrived at times and at times it did not. The country went through cycles of prosperity and recession. During the Clinton administration, the amount that was excluded was raised by a factor of about five times.<\/p>\n

Perhaps the exclusion level should be continuously adjusted for inflation, but to cite lowering the estate tax as a panacea for our sluggish economy is pure nonsense.<\/p>\n

Wealth concentration is and was a contributor to our current problems. Simplistic change in tax policy is poor policy.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Jerry A. Brownfield, Bellingham<\/em><\/p>\n

A step backward in the wrong direction<\/strong><\/p>\n

As a doctor who provides a wide range of reproductive health care to patients, I watch Congress debate health-care reform with a cold shudder.<\/p>\n

Their political arguments about what should be covered have overtaken the discussion about who should be covered.<\/p>\n

The task we\u2019ve given Congress is to find a way to serve the nearly 47 million Americans who are currently without health insurance. Their job is not to make personal medical decisions for women, for men, or for families.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m encouraged that the Senate last week voted down the Nelson\/Hatch amendment that would have restricted women\u2019s access to abortion coverage in the private health-insurance market, even if they paid for the premiums with their own money.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a step backward that American women can\u2019t afford to take.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s hope such draconian measures continue to be avoided in health-care reform.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s been a long run, but the finish line for historic health-care reform is in sight. All citizens deserve access to our medical-care system. Leave the personal medical choices to Americans.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Anna Kaminski, MD, Seattle<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Winners and losers As the health-care bill is near completion, we see there are winners and losers [\u201cGOP drops delays on health-care vote: Those states who get the bill for the health-care legislation and those states that have received special considerations because of their status in the Senate. Again our state suffers from a lack […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-101357","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101357","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=101357"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101357\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=101357"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=101357"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=101357"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}