This is the week to think about health care issues

This is the week to think about health care issues
EDITOR:
Should a person have to choose between paying for food or paying for a prescription? Should a lack of insurance keep people from seeking primary care so they end up in an emergency room for a preventable condition? Should hospitals and doctors spend increasing amounts of time and money on services with no reimbursement and then be forced to make impossible decisions about allocating dwindling resources?
The United States has to fix our health care system and the way for which it is paid. As a country, we say health care is a right, but clearly it's not a national priority. In Ohio, nearly one in eight of our neighbors does not have health coverage; over 45 million people across the country are uninsured. What number will make this a national priority? 50 million? 100 million? By then it may be too late, and certainly it will be too late for those needing health services now.
The first week of May is Cover the Uninsured Week, a time for calling attention to the fact that millions of Americans lack health insurance. However, every week is Cover the Uninsured Week for non-profit health care providers. At Humility of Mary Health Partners our mission is to care for our community, especially the poor and underserved.
We are proud to carry out that mission and grateful we can provide excellent health services to people from many counties, regardless of ability to pay. In 2004, we spent over $31 million to provide free hospital and outpatient care, community health programs, illness prevention and other services for thousands of uninsured or underinsured persons in our area. We are honored to play such an important role in the community.
At HMHP we believe everyone has a right to excellent health care services and we will continue to extend the healing ministry of Jesus to all who come to us. We provide free and discounted care for those with financial challenges and while this helps families today, it is not the long term solution. Hospitals, doctors, nurses, technicians, managers and others in the health care industry are swimming upstream against a torrent of increasing need and shrinking resources. We ask you to join us and call upon elected officials to work together to find solutions to the health care system and ensure that all Americans have affordable access to the care they need.
ROBERT SHRODER, President & amp; CEO
Humility of Mary Health Partners
Youngstown
Ounce of prevention is worth a pound of laws
EDITOR,
I'm writing this in response to an article that ran in last Tuesday's paper, "Mayor seeks to limit sex offenders." The article says that Miami Beach Mayor David Dremer responded to the slayings of two area girls with tougher laws governing sex offenders in the city. The laws included larger buffer zones between sex offenders' homes and schools, and a proposal to monitor sex offenders via satellite positioning systems.
I cannot help but feel that these laws are a little misguided. Not in their treatment of sex offenders, but rather that lawmakers believe that tougher legislation will make children any safer.
I doubt that a sex offender who has decided to harm a child will be deterred by imaginary lines and eye-in-the-sky technology (as expensive as I'm sure it will be). If a would-be sex offender has the mindset of "It's legal as long as I'm able to get away with it," how safe are your children?
Perhaps one of the best ways for parents to protect their children is to not rely on the government to do it for them. Parents should tell their children about how strangers could be dangerous and how to protect themselves. Furthermore, they should make sure that their son or daughter is never unsupervised.
It's a lesson that's been around as long as I can remember, but it's also one of the most important in protecting your son or daughter. It's also a lesson that needed to be mentioned in the article.
BILL RODGERS
Youngstown