Jim Petro should torpedo outmoded insurance plan

Jim Petro should torpedooutmoded insurance plan
EDITOR:
Ohio Attorney General Jim Petro is running for the Republican nomination for Ohio governor in next May's primary election. The winner will face the Democrats' nominee in November to replace Gov. Bob Taft.
Jim Petro hews to conservative values, his Web site trumpets. He's pro-family, too, but does that mean he'll take his position to the next level by condemning the commercial health insurance trade in so-called family plans? Will Petro call for the liquidation of the antiquated commercial health insurance industry altogether? Will Jim Petro urge the Ohio GOP leadership to end its 40-year career of enabling the political fixers of the Ohio Association of Health Plans and its national counterpart, America's Health Insurance Plans?
Jim Petro and his Republican opponent, Secretary of State Ken Blackwell, will both stand on solid conservative ground should they do so. Commercial health insurance "family" plans are a relic of a 1930s scheme to prop up a dying Depression-era hospital. We'll see a day when the Ohio Historical Society displays commercial health insurance "family" policies with such other odious and obsolete documents as restrictive covenants, labor indentures and letters of manumission. School kids will stand aghast when they're told "Family plans never actually covered families at all."
Commercial health insurance "family" plans do not and need not respect Christian or any other religious dogma, or family values. That's because the word "family" as used by insurers means only "subscribers and other covered persons" whose average aggregate risk of morbidity is typically about 21/2 times of that of a "covered person" whose risk of morbidity is equal to the average of all "covered persons" within a commercially defined risk pool.
What this means is that your health care, as distributed by commercial health insurance, is always extremely vulnerable to political hucksters. Misguided culture warriors from the left and right bamboozle the public by refusing to distinguish "family" plans from natural families, while legislators deflect criticism of our diabolical health care system by devising unfunded phantom risk pools that serve no one but their masters. Standing Christian charity and Western norms of commonsense decency on their heads, we are damnably close to construing the denial of health care as an affirmative value.
Jim Petro and Ken Blackwell have the tools to do what's necessary to rid us of our evil health care system. They must persuade Ohio Republicans to call for the elimination of the outmoded commercial health insurance industry, and its replacement by an efficient and effective 21st century single-payer, Universal Health Care for all Ohioans Act, which is now in the General Assembly
Jack Labusch
Niles
Winter heating messagemisleads, reader argues
EDITOR:
Airing on television these days is a public service message about saving on your winter heating bill. It starts as follows: "For every 1 degree you lower your thermostat, you save 1 percent on your monthly heating bill."
When I first saw this I thought, "I don't believe that for one minute."
Not until my second viewing did I understand, when I caught the bottom line on the author of this message.
This message is brought to us by America's oil and natural gas industry. Bingo! They're adding "insult to gouging."
In other words, if you lower your thermostat from 70 to 65 degrees, you will save a lousy $15 a month on your $300 monthly gas bill. Bunk! You should save much more. The American public is smarter than that.
Reading between the lines, the real message is: "Keep your thermostat at a comfortable 70. Who would freeze in their own living room and save only $15 a month?" -- Your friendly natural gas industry.
GERHARD LANGE
Boardman
Retail clerk offers adviceto Christmas shoppers
EDITOR:
We are in full swing for the shopping season. To those of us who may make our living working in retail all year, we have to endure many things that will ensure us a special place in heaven. For the most part, we have valued customers who are kind and nice and would never act in a rude manner. To those customers, I thank you from my heart, and appreciate you very much.
Some people who shop in the stores forget that clerks are people with feelings and problems just like you. We don't make the rules; we just have to abide by them.
If you come to the store with a chip on your shoulder, you need to rethink your attitude, and come back another time. Long lines are a way of life at this time of year. Taking your anger out on the cashier is futile. We wish we had enough help, too, but that is not the case in many instances.
When a clerk asks you to please keep your child secure in the shopping cart, don't take offense. We have seen far too many children fall from the cart and get injured. Thank the clerk, and know that we just want to protect your most treasured possession. Don't leave your children in the toy and electronic departments, and expect a clerk to watch them. We cannot be responsible for their safety.
Have patience with people who must use a wheelchair, walker or cane. We have to remember that Christmas is Jesus' birthday and nothing can erase that fact. Many people want to take religion out of this beautiful holiday, and I think that is sad. I went to the post office to buy Madonna stamps and was told that I couldn't get them since they have taken religion out of Christmas.
This country is in serious trouble, and this is just one more reason why we need to take a good long look at the way we act towards one another.
I wish you a blessed Christmas, a healthy and safe New Year.
PAT ZOCCALI
Warren
City school chief's messagefrom 1928 still rings true
EDITOR:
As school boards in the area are about to start the new year with both old and new members, I would like to quote former Youngstown Schools Superintendent J. J. Richeson in his greeting address to the city's teachers. In that address, he decries politics in school governance.
Richeson said: "We see people trying to get on school boards in order to pay a debt, to give favors to firms and to individuals. We can't play that kind of game without doing great harm to the children."
The year was 1928. Think about it.
MARGARET WERDEN ROTH
Canfield