Improve Medicare, then expand it
Congress continues to dance around the options for rational health care reform. As posted on our Web page (www.OurHealthReform.com) we favor an improvement in Medicare and then to slowly allow the rest of America to purchase coverage from the improved Medicare as a public option for health care coverage.
Three simple options for a public-option health care plan are:
1. Authorize Medicare to offer its own Medicare Supplement and to begin issuing a real and replaceable ID number (to stop use of SSI numbers and reduce fraud). Slowly extend the Medicare option to all Americans, allowing them to purchase health care coverage from Medicare.
2. Improve Medicare as above then allow Medicare to be run by the public as a non-profit public insurance company.
3. Improve Medicare as above. Then allow the public-option portion to be run by current insurance companies, as non-private companies. These companies could compete and make a profit by improving the health of their policy holders and allowing them to keep some of the money that they save as their profit margin.
The poorest performers would have their public-option program withdrawn.
Imagine: Profit potential aligned with health care outcomes!
Talk to your leaders. There are so many rational options. Partisanship should not define America.
MARK E. GREEN, M.D.
Maryville, Tenn.
Insurance fears are already here
The debate on whether this nation “needs” some sort of guaranteed national health care access has been going on for several decades. I thought we had finally reached a point that even the most greedy and selfish could realize it would be more profitable to have insured citizens. I was wrong.
What are the objections?
1. The fear of “socialism,” by those who look forward to their Medicare?
2. That insurance companies will dictate our treatment? (Already happening. Often!)
3. That someone will try to tell us what doctor we can see? (Happens all the time!) Example: My husband made an appointment with one doctor and was told he could not come, because they did not participate in his insurance program. (Never mind, that he has a $5,000 deductible and has never had anything actually paid by his insurance. He is a Vietnam veteran, by the way.)
4. That costs will rise. (May I say “duh” here?) Between us, we pay over $1,200 per month for our policies, and this does not cover any toward his prescriptions. (Never mind, there is no problem. It must be my imagination!)
JANICE HARRIS
Cleveland, Tenn.
Congressmen can cut their salaries
It seems to me that if our beloved congressmen wanted to show the voters that they were really sincere in wanting to give the working people some encouragement — they could repeal their own automatic wage increase and even lower their own wages as an example that they were willing to do something personally to lower our national debt.
A voter who got no wage increase this year.
DAVID LEGG
Rossville