{"id":417920,"date":"2010-03-11T16:35:04","date_gmt":"2010-03-11T21:35:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/seattletimes.nwsource.com\/html\/northwestvoices\/2011321636_healthcareroundupanecdotes.html?syndication=rss"},"modified":"2010-03-11T16:35:04","modified_gmt":"2010-03-11T21:35:04","slug":"health-care-roundup-anecdotes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/417920","title":{"rendered":"Health-care roundup: anecdotes"},"content":{"rendered":"

Marcelas Owen\u2019s story shows need for preventive care<\/strong><\/p>\n

The untold piece to the story about Marcelas Owen, who lost his mother, is the cost of emergency medical care versus preventive care [\u201cBoy takes personal story to D.C.,\u201d NWTuesday, March 9]. This case illustrates the fact that regardless of income, everyone in this country has access to medical care \u2014 emergency care that is.<\/p>\n

However, as we all know, an ounce of prevention is often worth pounds of cure. The preventive care in this case may have saved the life of Marcelas\u2019 mother, as well as money. I have no idea how much Owens\u2019 visits to the emergency room or the hospital stays cost, but I do know that these costs are absorbed by hospitals as overhead that are then passed along to others. Emergency-room costs are more expensive than preventive care and this adds to the overall cost of health care for everyone.<\/p>\n

There are approximately 46 million without health care in this country and one way or another we all will pay for their health care. It would be much more compassionate and much less costly if we did it as preventive care for everyone before emergency-room care is needed<\/p>\n

\u2014 Don Van Valkenburg, Woodinville<\/em><\/p>\n

Owen\u2019s problems are his own to deal with<\/strong><\/p>\n

While the story of Marcelas Owens\u2019 mother is a tragedy, it still does not warrant burdening the people of this country with footing the astronomical bill being pawned by President Barack Obama. I cannot imagine what this family has had to endure, but why should the onus be on everyone else to pay for this \u2014 or situations like this?<\/p>\n

And how shameless and tactless of the Democrats \u2014 especially Patty Murray \u2014 to use this kid as a prop for their agenda. It is simply disgusting.<\/p>\n

If the shoe were on the other foot, there is no way I would ever ask for special treatment. My problems are my problems, not the American public\u2019s. How refreshing it would be if our leaders saw it that way, but that is clearly hoping for too much. Owens\u2019 problems are not mine to bear \u2014 nor anyone else\u2019s.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Taiji Tamura, Shoreline<\/em><\/p>\n

Suspend federal officials\u2019 health care<\/strong><\/p>\n

I would like to weigh in on the health-care debate. I am an ex-logger who attended some college and at one time was insurance-licensed for life insurance. This, and never being able to afford health care for my four kids as I raised them, gives me an inside look at today\u2019s topic.<\/p>\n

One of my classes in college, which I had to work like a dog to pass, was medical coding and billing. I learned that entire businesses were in place to attempt to collect on the insurance payments due to the doctors. The privacy requirements in place do nothing for privacy and small wonder the doctors miss stuff. Every insurance carrier has different company methods and schedules and do not want to change a thing \u2014 who would? The insurance companies have us against the ropes. They are adding to the cost of your health care by as much as double.<\/p>\n

I would suggest that we suspend all heath care for elected federal officials until this mess is solved. That\u2019s right, senators, representatives, the president, vice president, etc., would suddenly have to pay their family\u2019s own medical bills out of pocket or shop around for some good coverage \u2014 our insurance companies and political contributors will be glad to help out.<\/p>\n

I believe President Obama and Vice President Biden would support such a move because it would put the issue in perspective.<\/p>\n

\u2014 David Beers, Hoodsport<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Marcelas Owen\u2019s story shows need for preventive care The untold piece to the story about Marcelas Owen, who lost his mother, is the cost of emergency medical care versus preventive care [\u201cBoy takes personal story to D.C.,\u201d NWTuesday, March 9]. This case illustrates the fact that regardless of income, everyone in this country has access […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2861,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-417920","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/417920","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=417920"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/417920\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=417920"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=417920"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=417920"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}