Some people need guidance through health care system

Some people need guidance through health care system
EDITOR:
There are times when navigating the health care system feels like being lost in the woods without a map or compass to guide you, especially when there are language, cultural, and logistical barriers involved. It does not need to be this way.
Legislation pending in Congress known as the Patient Navigator, Outreach, and Chronic Disease and Prevention Act can help Americans get the care they deserve, especially those who may be poor, lack adequate health insurance, live in rural areas, or who are part of a racial or ethnic minority group. Patient navigators keep costs down by making efficient use of the health programs Congress has already created rather than by reinventing the wheel.
Patient navigator programs are like a "buddy system," pairing patients with a health professional. These navigators schedule appointments, arrange transportation, act as interpreters, explain cultural differences to both doctors and patients and help find funds to pay for medical treatment. They ensure that health care services are provided in a way that is responsive to a person's cultural beliefs and practices.
Unfortunately, the current health care system is not designed to address language and cultural barriers that prevent people from receiving timely information, not only about preventing or detecting diseases like cancer at an earlier, more treatable stage, but also from receiving quality treatment to combat the illness. A patient navigator is a low-cost way to prevent these kinds of patients from slipping through the cracks of the health care system, making sure patients get the care they need.
In Ohio this year approximately 60,300 people will be diagnosed with cancer and another 25,200 will die. This much-needed legislation will benefit people right here in Mahoning County. I urge Senator Michael DeWine to support this important, life-saving legislation.
MICHELE SCHROMOFSKY
Boardman
X The writer is an American Cancer Society volunteer and cancer survivor.
Saudis, not Saddam, were behind 9/11; why attack Iraq?
EDITOR:
I believe that the war in Iraq is a national tragedy. President George W. Bush is fully aware of the fact that the terrorists that executed the dastardly attack on the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and the airplane crash near Somerset, Pa., were mostly from Saudi Arabia. In fact, 15 of the 19 highjackers were Saudis. Osama bin Laden was the mastermind of the sneak attack. The Saudis were members of the Wahabe sect (a militant arm of the Islamic religion) in Saudi Arabia. Osama bin Laden is a member of the Said family of Saudi Arabia. The royal family has since denounced Osama after the 9-11 attack on our shores.
Saddam Hussein had no part in the 9-11 tragedy although he was elated to learn of the tragedy. Granted he is a mad man and falls under the same category as Adolph Hitler and other world leaders who had no regard for life, liberty or personal happiness. Saddam Hussein was so evil that he had his own brother-in-law killed after kissing him good-bye at the airport. As soon as the aircraft became airborne, it exploded, killing everyone on board. Saddam was personally responsible for scores of like atrocities.
Africa, Asia and the Middle East have an overabundance of leaders who are just as evil. The major difference lies in the fact that most of those countries do not have oil reserves in the magnitude that Iraq possesses. With one exception. That exception is our "friends" in Saudi Arabia. The royal family of Saudi-Arabia (fearing internal revolt of its own people) has graciously requested that we remove our air power from their country as the situation there was beginning to look very precarious. We relocated our planes and most of our military might to Yemen as a result. The Middle East is like a powder keg with a raging fire looming near by.
Vice President Dick Cheney's company, Halliburton (of which Cheney was the C.E.O. before becoming the veep) was awarded the lion's share of the contracts to rebuild Iraq (at very lucrative prices, I might add). Lately the $80,000-plus salaries that workers were earning are beginning to look paltry in respect to the risk involved. The insurgents took on a new tactic of kidnapping workers. No amount of money warrants risk-taking of that proportion.
BEN PAULSEY
Warren