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St. Louis Post-Dispatch

Lee Enterprises

Friday, November 6, 2009 10:34 PM CST
LETTER: Take the time to do health reform right

BILLIE SOUTHARD, Martinsville

I believe this Health Care Reform is being gone at the wrong way.

It should be many parts of the population who have had experience in health care, doctors, nurses, insurance companies, nursing homes and drug companies. And it should take at least a couple of years to do it right. Let’s not rush it.

Those who are involved with lobbyists have no business trying to construct a plan.

Already, many health care providers help people obtain free or reduced costs. Many drug companies help people with their medicines. Hospitals are helping people find help that is already available. And they are expected to provide care to people who have nothing.

All these institutions from nursing homes to hospitals have to pay their employees. Most depend on Medicare and Medicaid for most of their costs and those programs are months behind on paying them.

Can you imagine what will happen if Medicare is cut? I’m sure many of the health givers will have to close. And then where will people go who need care?

If our money is all taken in taxes then will we have the incentive to keep working hard, knowing it’s most all being taken from us?

Challenges can make us stronger or kill us. It’s our choice how we deal with it. People lose their houses every day. It’s not the end of the earth for them unless they choose it.

Many millionaires have failed many times before succeeding but they kept trying and they should not be penalized for being hard working, when some people quit working and expect the government to take care of them. There are those who cannot care for themselves and we all should help them out.

I have had experience in large medical bills. As long as you make payments you won’t be taken to court and in most instances don’t charge finance charges.

If the charge is so large you cannot be expected to ever pay it off, there is medical bankruptcy.

With the capitalism system, we can work as hard as we want, as many jobs as we can and make more money. Obviously, some cannot make as much money as others due to skills they have or don’t have. But once most of our money gets taken away in taxes, we are not going to have the ability to care for our own, let alone help others.

BILLIE SOUTHARD

Martinsville

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Bps wrote on Nov 7, 2009 4:56 PM:

" And it should take at least a couple of years to do it right. Lets not rush it.
-----------
Excellent letter!

Thank you for expressing what so many of my circle of family and friends feel.

So far it seems like the bills those in power keep putting forth are just using the concept of health care reform as an excuse to sneak in their little pet theories, take more control, reward their friends, raise taxes and to remake the country into some warped image of a socialist utopia.

You are 100% correct, we need the problems fixed but we need to take the time to do it right. "

Bernie wrote on Nov 9, 2009 4:24 PM:

" At least 45,000 innocent Americans die every year because they don't have health insurance. That's the equivalent of 123 unnecessarily dead Americans every day, or fifteen 9-11's worth every year. If 123 innocent Americans were dieing in an airplane crash every day, or if another 9-11 was happening every three weeks or so, then would you think it would be OK for us to wait another year or two to solve the problem, and in the meantime do nothing to stop the killing? If 45,000 Americans die every year but nobody hears them, are they really dead?

But for the grace of God go you, My Friend. We are the only civilized nation on Earth that allows this injustice and these easily preventable deaths to continue unabated. We even helped Iraq write a constitutional guarantee of health care for ALL of its citizens.

Sheesh. How collectively stupid can we be? "

prairieguy wrote on Nov 9, 2009 6:42 PM:

" Billie, listen to Bernie's comments and stop propagating the republican talking points. Make the MORAL decision. It takes but a moment. "

sophiesmom wrote on Nov 12, 2009 7:55 AM:

" How many people die every day from any kind of accidents, violence, and just old age?
We all have an appointed time to be born and die. We just do not know when it will be. But we all have to face death. No one will live forever, nor should they be expected to.
I keep seeing these numbers but we all have to die. Unlike many, I will face death with no fears. I have the living will, which will prevent me from being kept alive, unless I have a hope of recovering and have a good prognosis. I do not want to be kept alive if I am going to be in pain, or won't have good quality of life.
Thank God, I am His child and have accepted Him as part of my life. "

father bob wrote on Nov 13, 2009 9:58 AM:

" sophiesmom wrote on Nov 12, 2009 7:55 AM:
" How many people die every day from any kind of accidents, violence, and just old age?
We all have an appointed time to be born and die. We just do not know when it will be. But we all have to face death. No one will live forever, nor should they be expected to.
I keep seeing these numbers but we all have to die.""""""

you're tune would change dramatically if you were stricken with a grave malady.....don't kid yourself. "

Bernie wrote on Nov 14, 2009 4:19 PM:

" Sophiesmom.....my friends' young daughter was diagnosed with a form of leukemia that is 98% cureable. Problem is their health insurer singled them out of their aptly-named risk group and rated them up to $8000/month (in premiums alone not counting deductibles, co-pays and exclusions). That's $96,000/year just for health insurance...or their daughter DIES (as in real-life kind of dead). If this happened to Sophie would you just tell her, "We all have an appointed time"? Let's get real here. Stop and think for just one minute about what you're saying. Unless you're willing to sacrifice yourself and/or your own daughter to a senseles and easily preventable death, please help be part of the solution instead of part of the problem. "

Bernie wrote on Nov 15, 2009 5:16 PM:

" I want to add that death by what would otherwise be easily curable leukemia does not happen overnight. It is a long, slow, tragic, arduos and hard to comprehend experience.

Only a person totally devoid of any humane compassion for their fellow man could sit by, watch (or refuse to see) in silence...or (worse) say, "We all have an appointed time" as leukemia and multitudes of other easily cureable diseases wreak havoc on tens of thousands of innocent Americans.

Only in America do we continue to defend and condone such heartless and cruel behavior. "

red,white,blue wrote on Nov 15, 2009 8:41 PM:

" Bernie, please cite your CREDIBLE source that 45,000 Americans die every year for lack of health insurance. This letter writer has it exactly right. Why the rush to push this through? I can tell you and this is from my gut...it's all about control. Controlling the banks, the car companies, the insurance companies, our health care, what we eat, what's in our vending machines, what we drink. Read Saul Alinsky's Rules for Radicals and tell me this is not what is happening to our country right now. If this bill is so wonderful, why are they so determined to ignore almost a million people who were in Washington on 9/12 of this year? Why are they ignoring an impromptu rally put together in less than a week that brought almost 20,000 to DC to protest this bill? I can only imagine if the left had been able to muster half that many in what more than likely would have been a less than peaceable rally how the media would have been slobbering all over that. But most importantly, if this health care reform is so wonderful why are our legislators not going to be under the same plan AND why is Pelosi willing to sacrifice some seats next year in the election (as she has admitted will probably happen) if this bill is so wonderful? I have no hope that either of our liberal Senators will vote against it but I do have hope that saner minds will prevail in the Senate. "