{"id":102776,"date":"2009-12-24T14:00:06","date_gmt":"2009-12-24T19:00:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/seattletimes.nwsource.com\/html\/northwestvoices\/2010587502_waitingandwishingforproperhealthcare.html?syndication=rss"},"modified":"2009-12-24T14:00:06","modified_gmt":"2009-12-24T19:00:06","slug":"waiting-and-wishing-for-proper-health-care","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/102776","title":{"rendered":"Waiting and wishing for proper health care"},"content":{"rendered":"

If Santa were in charge, we all would have coal<\/strong><\/p>\n

Editor, The Times:<\/p>\n

As a physician, I recognize the great importance of health care to people \u2014 my career has been devoted to providing the best possible care at the lowest possible price. But even though health-care reform is badly needed, it is not an emergency requiring overnight, radical changes that threaten to do more harm than good [\u201cNow\u2019s not the time for health-care reform,\u201d Opinion, editorial, Dec. 23].<\/p>\n

Thus, I commend The Seattle Times editorial board for dropping support of the health-care-reform bills currently being rammed through Congress [\u201cPut health care aside and fix the economy,\u201d Opinion, editorial, Dec. 20].<\/p>\n

At the moment, the real national emergency is the economy, and I agree with the editorial that Congress needs to focus on the economy and set health care aside.<\/p>\n

Congress should focus on revitalizing the economy and creating jobs, by controlling its insatiable urge to spend our hard-earned money, lowering tax rates, and paying off a national debt that is ruining our credit even with Santa Claus.<\/p>\n

Once we are on stable financial footing, Congress will be better positioned to revisit health-care reform. Its first priority then should be to overhaul Medicare and Medicaid, rather than restructuring the entire system.<\/p>\n

If Congress passes this ill-conceived, massively expensive health-care bill, it will become the Grinch who stole Christmas.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Arthur Coday, MD, Shoreline<\/em><\/p>\n

Sen. Patty Murray must have added wrong<\/strong><\/p>\n

The editorial on Dec. 23 is right on \u2014 now is not the time for health-care reform. Certainly not reform that will add trillions to the deficit in these hard times of double-digit unemployment.<\/p>\n

The editorial points out that much of the supposed payment for the Senate bill will come from cuts in the Medicare program.<\/p>\n

In Sen. Patty Murray\u2019s guest commentary \u201cDelay won\u2019t cure nation\u2019s troubled health-care system\u201d [Opinion, Dec. 23] responding to an earlier editorial \u201cPut health care aside and fix the economy,\u201d she stated that \u201cMedicare will go bankrupt by 2017.\u201d<\/p>\n

Did she read the bill before voting? If she read the bill, she didn\u2019t do the math. How can a program be funded from a source going bankrupt?<\/p>\n

Murray cited the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimate that the deficit will be reduced by $132 billion, but she does not mention that CBO is instructed to assume that the funding from cuts in Medicare will be real, not imaginary.<\/p>\n

Both the House and Senate bills will drive up the cost of health care and, at 2,000 plus pages, become an expensive bureaucratic morass too complicated to administer.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Edward Wittmann, Seattle<\/em><\/p>\n

Senator right on; Seattle Times dead wrong<\/strong><\/p>\n

Sen. Patty Murray is right in her call to action on health-care reform. The Seattle Times editorial board\u2019s call for delay is dead wrong.<\/p>\n

More delay \u2014 more American deaths.<\/p>\n

The current health-care system rates an F. The Senate version of health-care reform rates a C+. Murray understands that a C+ is better than an F. It is easier to move from a C+ to a B or an A, than from an F to a B or an A.<\/p>\n

Action, not delay, on health care will begin solving one of the many problems facing our country. Congress can then take action to solve the other problems facing our country.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Tom Megow, Renton<\/em><\/p>\n

Sure, it\u2019s not a perfect bill, but<\/strong><\/p>\n

I couldn\u2019t disagree with The Seattle Times more on the editorial \u201cNow\u2019s not the time for health-care reform.\u201d<\/p>\n

If not now, when?<\/p>\n

Sure, it\u2019s not a perfect bill, but when have we ever had a perfect law? If the Founding Fathers had waited for perfection, we would have never become a nation in the first place. Surely, the compromise over slavery was unconscionable, but without it the U.S. would not exist.<\/p>\n

Health-care reform is long overdue. We don\u2019t need more delays and more people dying or going bankrupt needlessly. We are stuck with the current political sausage machine for now.<\/p>\n

The Democrats have done the best they can do at this point with nothing but roadblocks from Republicans. We have to strive for a more perfect union, not sit around and wait for perfection.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s a recession going on after all.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Paul S. McDevitt, Seattle<\/em><\/p>\n

Political fender bender<\/strong><\/p>\n

The U.S. Senate faces the choice between a train wreck and a fender bender.<\/p>\n

Train wreck: If this bill passes, the American medical economy will be emasculated, the general economy will suffer, our descendants will be saddled with another out-of-control entitlement program cost, and Democrats will lose Congress in 2010.<\/p>\n

Fender bender: If this bill fails, President Obama will lose a little political capital.<\/p>\n

The choice hinges on one vote.<\/p>\n

This may indeed be history, but it is also an example of corrupted partisan power of the highest degree.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Jeffrey S. Howard, Redmond<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

If Santa were in charge, we all would have coal Editor, The Times: As a physician, I recognize the great importance of health care to people \u2014 my career has been devoted to providing the best possible care at the lowest possible price. But even though health-care reform is badly needed, it is not an […]<\/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-102776","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102776","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=102776"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102776\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=102776"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=102776"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=102776"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}