Hickory Valley Road needs paving help
Is the city so poor it cannot pave Hickory Valley Road from Lee Highway to Shallowford Road? I am 78, and it has been the same rough concrete as long as I can remember. Only occasional bad patch jobs have been done.
Jim Wolfe
U.S. has obligation to provide care
I read the recent Free Press editorial titled “Getting Rid Of An Entitlement To Which No One Is Entitled,” and must say I agree with the writer in one respect: Americans are not entitled to health care coverage. Nothing in our Constitution mentions it, nor does that guarantee appear in any of the subsequent amendments. That said, I found in it an aloof and callous disregard for anyone unfortunate enough not to have the financial means to afford decent health coverage. While we progressives sincerely believe it is a function of a compassionate and humane society, I think the author sees health care as a commodity to be possessed only to the degree one can afford it. In short, if you’re rich, you live; if you are poor, too bad.
At the risk of sounding all bleeding heart and snowflakey, I believe any great nation has an obligation to all its citizens to provide principled, affordable health care irrespective of that person’s position on the social ladder. To consign a neighbor to the dust heap because of life events beyond their control may make great economic sense, but it demeans us all in the end.
Jim Griffin
Delano, Tenn.
Line in the sand on health care
In recognition of International Women’s Day, I point out why repealing the Affordable Care Act (ACA) is terrible for women – one of the many reasons why women march, write, call and resist.
Before Obamacare/ACA, insurance companies routinely charged women more for the same coverage as men. On the individual market, 80 percent more was normal. This practice is called gender rating, and Obamacare outlawed it. Thank you, Obamacare.
By pounding the drum for full repeal, Republicans tell women they won’t protect us from arbitrary and discriminatory insurance practices.
Hello? What year is this? This part of the ACA is a government regulation that protects women from a Mad Men world. Government laws protecting citizens? Why, what a concept! There are many government regulations that are good and just and necessary.
I want pre-existing condition exclusions to stay illegal and young people under age 26 to stay on their parents’ policy. To this list of untouchable health care laws, I want gender rating and lifetime caps to remain illegal also. Those four pillars are untouchable. This is my line in the sand.
Rhiannon Maynard