{"id":188661,"date":"2010-01-15T17:29:45","date_gmt":"2010-01-15T22:29:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/seattletimes.nwsource.com\/html\/northwestvoices\/2010806602_healthcareroundupnearingcompromisebetweensenateandhouse.html?syndication=rss"},"modified":"2010-01-15T17:29:45","modified_gmt":"2010-01-15T22:29:45","slug":"health-care-roundup-nearing-compromise-between-senate-and-house","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/188661","title":{"rendered":"Health-care roundup: nearing compromise between Senate and House"},"content":{"rendered":"

Perspective on business<\/strong><\/p>\n

Lance Dickie\u2019s Jan. 8 column quoted the estimate that the health-care bill \u201cwould extend\u201d coverage to more than 30 million Americans [\u201cHealthy people, healthy wallets,\u201d Opinion]. It\u2019s true \u2014 that\u2019s how many people who don\u2019t have insurance that would get it. And \u201cwould\u201d really means \u201cmaybe.\u201d<\/p>\n

But this is deceptive. According to the Congressional Budget Office, 10 million currently covered by plans at work would lose this insurance. Their employers would be forced to drop these plans because reform mandates would make coverage too expensive. This is one example of how the overgrown legislation fails to pay attention to everyday realities.<\/p>\n

Millions will be worse off because the reform\u2019s bottom-line impact on companies and institutions that buy and sell health care was not properly considered. Medicine is a business that\u2019s about to lose revenue. Some providers, insurers and manufacturers will lose profitability and fold. To continue, they will likely turn to contract labor and services (outsourcing) and try to reduce waste like never before.<\/p>\n

To keep existing providers in the system \u2014 and maintain access to care \u2014Dickie and other opinion leaders should lead new dialogue about how business practices need to change with the reform.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Randy Bartsch, Tacoma<\/em><\/p>\n

The right thing to do<\/strong><\/p>\n

Your editorial is misguided at best [\u201cJobs first, then talk about health reform,\u201d editorial, Opinion, Jan. 8]. Every American citizen deserves adequate medical care. And, every American citizen certainly deserves the opportunity to find work. I see no reason why we can\u2019t do both.<\/p>\n

No one should lose health insurance because he\/she lost his\/her job. Employers, big or small, shouldn\u2019t be burdened with the cost of health insurance for their employees. No one should be forced into bankruptcy just because a family member got sick. Most of the rest of the civilized world gets this.<\/p>\n

To your credit, two columns appearing in The Times supported my view. Lance Dickie and Amy Goodman [\u201cThe best way to protect Americans is with adequate health care,\u201d Opinion, Jan. 8] obviously get it, too.<\/p>\n

All Americans deserve adequate medical care. We take care of each other in this country, it is what we do. If it were up to me, we would already have Medicare extended to everyone.<\/p>\n

The current legislation in the House and Senate are just a start to move us in the right direction. We cannot afford to be distracted by other issues. It is, simply put, the right thing to do.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Terry Mercier, Woodinville<\/em><\/p>\n

Health care held hostage<\/strong><\/p>\n

I had such high hopes of finally \u2014 with the Obama administration and a majority Democratic Congress \u2014 getting an American health-care system that is designed to truly provide the American people with comprehensive, universal and affordable health care as is provided by virtually all of the rest of the industrialized, modern world.<\/p>\n

It has become sadly apparent that both Congress and the White House have caved to the desires of the health-insurance industry by putting together a bill that does not address most of the problems with the private health-care system in our country. This is not in the best interest of the American citizens who were promised great things in return for their votes in November 2008.<\/p>\n

It is time to listen to the likes of Sen. Bernie Sanders and not the obstructionists like Sen. Joe Lieberman and Sen. Ben Nelson who hold America\u2019s health care hostage for personal or political gain.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Jay Wang, Seattle<\/em><\/p>\n

Abortion provisions<\/strong><\/p>\n

The purpose of insurance is to protect us against liability from unforeseen events and I expect my health insurance to cover the full range of unplanned medical emergencies.<\/p>\n

Under Sen. Ben Nelson\u2019s abortion provision in the Senate\u2019s health-care bill, tens of millions of Americans would be forced to write two separate checks \u2014 one for abortion coverage and one for the rest of their health insurance. It unfairly singles out abortion in a proposed system that is both unworkable for insurance companies and burdensome for women.<\/p>\n

Women don\u2019t plan an unplanned pregnancy or complication in their wanted pregnancy any more than they plan to have a heart attack. I urge leaders of Congress to remove this dangerous provision \u2014 and the House\u2019s Stupak abortion ban \u2014 before the bill becomes law. Women deserve better.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Kaela Reilly, Shoreline<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Perspective on business Lance Dickie\u2019s Jan. 8 column quoted the estimate that the health-care bill \u201cwould extend\u201d coverage to more than 30 million Americans [\u201cHealthy people, healthy wallets,\u201d Opinion]. It\u2019s true \u2014 that\u2019s how many people who don\u2019t have insurance that would get it. And \u201cwould\u201d really means \u201cmaybe.\u201d But this is deceptive. According to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2861,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-188661","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/188661","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\/2861"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=188661"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/188661\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=188661"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=188661"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=188661"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}