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To the editor:
In the editorial, “The right vote, for right now,” (July 5, page A8), the Danville Register & Bee claims Rep. Tom Perriello, D-Fifth District, would not “blindly support a bill that would add hundreds or even thousands of dollars to our energy bills.”
Following the 300-page amendment submitted at 3 a.m., a complete copy of the bill did not exist prior to the vote. If nobody read the bill and completely understood its impact, wouldn’t you have to say he did “blindly support” the bill along with everyone else who voted aye?
MARK NICHOLSON
Danville
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I was wrong about my last post and I have to take back what I said about serving in the military. Just read about Marine Master Sgt. Hatfield’s death in Afghanistan, and I have to say, serving in the military does put you in an elite class. It’s called being a hero. My heartfelt condolences go out to his family and friends. I hope they know the sacrifice he made for his country can never be repaid. God bless.
Your right, just because you served in the military doesn’t put you in an elite class just like going to Harvard doesn’t endow you with any special class designations. However, it does teach you a few things about service before self, honor and integrity in all you do. Easy definition of integrity is doing the right thing even when no one is watching you. Were getting back to the initial letter here aren’t we? If Rep. Perriellio had any integrity, he would tell the truth about having not read the “Crap and trade bill” in full before he voted on it and knowing the effects we will all have to endure if the Senate jumps on this crazy train. Thought you would like to know, I just found out that the Senate has postponed voting on the bill until August at the earliest. I guess the tea parties across America are having a little affect on the power grabbers in Washington. Also, there will be protests scheduled for the offices of our favorite Rep. and Sen. Webb in Danville on 17 July. I would love to be there, but I am currently occupied helping the evil occupiers (that’s for you JP). Salaam Alekem.
well saw - let me just tell you that i DO understand about the insurance costs put on my employer. my employer gives us one of the best insurance programs available…it’s part of my employers benefit package to help lure and maintain top industry individuals. if i had to go out on my own and buy the plan i have at work, it would be much more than the $11k my employer pays…so thank you very much, i’ll keep my benefits “as is”. and just to let you know, i feel i am extremely lucky to have this plan. with that said, i still feel very strongly that all americans should be able to have access to an affordable healthcare plan of their choosing.
as far as joining the service at this point in my life, i think i would be rejected for my age alone, but thank you for the thought. and also for the statement that sounds like if someone wasn’t in the service, they aren’t as a good an american as a serviceman.
One of samsacres’ posts (10:16, 7/12) indicates the ignorance of those who support Obamacare. He says that his company pays 11 grand a year, but it only costs him $32 a week. What sam doesn’t understand, and most liberals don’t understand, is that his insurance is really costing him $11,000 a year. If his employer didn’t pay his insurance, they colud pay him the extra cost of it. Then he could shop around for insurance and find the best bargain.
Or, better yet, he could devote a few years of his life to the defense of the nation and the VA would take care of him. Unfortunately, most liberals aren’t cut out for soldiering, they want to enjoy their freedom without risking their life.
JP - Don’t be calling me no liberal!! Dem’s fightin words!
My concern with this example of the family of four is this - the government should not be forcing those people to pay $3000 for insurance to cover health needs they may very well not have. Given a choice of writing a check to the government for $3000, and the government simply picking up the tab for any necessary healthcare expenditures—- under this limited example I would rather the government pay the expenses versus taking these people’s hard-earned money.
As to what level income should qualify for direct care; well, that all depends. For example, a single person, making $27000 a year, I don’t think it’s so unreasonable to ask that person to cover their own health insurance. On the other end of the spectrum, take a family of six or seven or even (believe me, I’ve seen it) eight. In that larger family, with obviously larger expenses, perhaps an annual income of $60,000 or less would qualify for direct pay care. But, remember, I’m not proposing direct pay care as a cure all for this issue. I’m simply saying that between the governmnet paying for the ACTUAL HEALTH CARE and the government taking away these folks money to pay for INSURANCE, I believe the limited government resources would better be used providing direct care to those citizens.
Now let me make the conservative argument for a moment. In the last paragraph of your post, you agreed with me (shocking, isn’t it) that a $3000 hit is pretty big. But, you went on to say that this type of expenditure is just as necessary as housing and food. If I agreed with your analogy, couldn’t I just as well argue that, since it’s just as necessary as housing and food, that it is reasonable to expect that family to take care of it’s own health care needs without government intrusion?
Wow, Rockit. You have become a bleeding heart liberal. That last post was truly awesome and indicates that you have some concern for the poor among us. But, as always, President Obama can’t do a damned thing to please the Republicans. Damned if he does; damned if he doesn’t.
You seem to think that the cut off for free health insurance is too low. That’s a mighty liberal thing for you to say. What should be the cutoff? If the politicians get bogged down in what is and what is not poor, nothing will be done and we will all still be under the thumb of the big insurance companies. The only solution is free health care (a public plan, only) for all Americans, but you know that isn’t going to fly with the not so liberal thinkers of the GOP.
I agree that the $3000 is a big hit for someone making $27,000, but it is as necessary as housing and food for the poor working class. And, just out of curiosity - what is the lowest annual income you see, Rockit, to allow for direct-pay care? Peace.
my point - if a family of 4 making $27k can’t get healthcare coverage…who do you think pays for them anyway….we do. if one of those family members end up in an emergency room situation…there goes your $3000, probably more. so for everyone who doesn’t like a universal healthcare plan, for whatever reasons, you will pay anyway. part of the reason we are such a great country is because we don’t have our poor (and probably soon) middle class left out in the cold to fend for themselves when many aren’t able. if hospitals turned away anyone that didn’t have insurance, this nation would have more crime, poverty and disease. there’s more to this than just “healthcare is not a god given right” stated by all you conservatives.
JP and SAMSACRES - You miss the point. Maybe you guys make 100K+ annually, and if you do, great - good for you. Some people don’t.
If you’re on the low end of the spectrum, but not quite low enough to qualify for free health insurance, that $3000 is a big hit. Doesn’t matter that it’s a bargain compared to what private plans costs. It’s still a lot of money (10% of income) for someone making only $27,000 a year with a family to support. That only makes a family’s bad situation worse. It’s easy to say that it’s a small price to pay for insurance against catastrophic illness cost. But, the other side of the coin is if you don’t have a serious illness throughout the year, if you don’t have any expensive medical bills, you just wasted $3000 that you couldn’t afford to waste. And that’s only one provision of this plan. What other surprises do they have in store for us? To be perfectly honest with you, as conservative as I am, I would rather see the government just provide that family of four direct-pay care to cover their actual health care costs rather than pry $3000 out of them.
But, that’s just my opinion.
here’s a bill to shock you….my company based in the state of New York pays over $11,000 per year for my family’s health insurance (which includes dental, prescription, eyeglass and life). of that $11k, I have $32 per week taken out of my paycheck. it’s a bargin compared to what my company pays. $3,000 for a family of 4 is another bargin. there is still something wrong with paying $11k a year for health insurance… I have friends that live in canada (along with customers) and i haven’t heard any complaints from them. obama’s health plan IS NOT like canada and europe. he’s not going to force someone to have health insurance…
Rockit. Absolutely NOT! The fact that the Middle Eastern doctor knew what to do was pointed out because he was Middle Eastern; those from that part of the world have taken a bad rap from the American public in recent times. His ethnicity was pointed out because the implication by a poster here was that German doctors are inferior to American doctors, which is not true. The Middle Eastern doctor was from Iran. Had the doctor been black, a woman, or any other ethnicity or gender than Middle Eastern or male, I would not have mentioned it (OK, if he had been hispanic, I would have mentioned that, too). This doctor’s ethnicity (like the doctors who are hispanic) is the type of individual that Rush and Fox News so blatantly slam daily in their programming. This was a doctor who, likely, saved my wife’s life when the “Marcus Welby” type of doctor sent her home.
And, Rockit, with all due respect, to get health insurance for a family of four for $3000 today is a bargain (for a single health insurance policy with my company, I pay, just for myself, over $700 a year PLUS the company pays more than that for my coverage; hence, just for me, alone, we pay over $1500 a year; for a family of 4 it would be well over $3000 in what I pay and what the company pays, and I am healthy. At least each individual would be covered.
This week I talked with someone who works out of town at a hospital. This person said that when someone comes in for treatment and can’t pay, the hospital writes the visit off; however, that individual can then not find a doctor who will take him/her for follow up visits. This would not happen if all Americans were insured; the $3000 is a price that is not too much to pay to be assured that when a catastrophic illness comes along, the individual will not have to lose everything worked for to just pay the medical bills.
As for other “screwball nonsense.“ The GOP has not presented a viable alternative plan except to say “NO!“ Something needs to be done and something will be done; that’s why Americans sent the GOP packing during the last election.
Peace, my friend.
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