It shouldn’t cost extra for congressmen to vote

It shouldn’t cost extra for congressmen to vote

EDITOR:

Wouldn’t it be nice to go to a doctor and just have your health problems taken care of? Not have to worry about if it’s covered by your health insurance or Medicare. Not to have to fill out a bunch of forms. Not to have to wade through a maze of legalese to get your bill half paid. Not to find yourself in the middle of a donut hole. Not to have to send a bunch of checks every month to pay deductibles that keep going up. Not to worry about the future of your and your children’s health care.

Well you don’t have to. People in other countries don’t have these worries. They go to their doctors, dentist and optometrist without filling out any forms or worry about if the doctor is paid. In some cases the doctor comes to them at their homes. They receive no bills and send no checks. They are not forced to make calls and jump through hoops to find out what is covered. They are not confused by a lot of insurance forms or government forms. Don’t tell me this is not so, because it is. No one in these countries dislike their health care, with the exception of a few malcontents. Not one of them would trade with you, not even the malcontents.

Why don’t we have that here? Could it be that the medical industry is the richest industry in America. That they spend hundreds of millions each year on propaganda campaigns and on buying our elected officials. They are now campaigning to pass a bill that would force you, by law, to buy their insurance and have our government further subsidize them with tax dollars.

How did they become the richest industry? They didn’t do it by looking out for your health. The sicker you are the more they make. The doctors make more, the hospitals make more, and the insurance company charges you more and of course you can’t drop the insurance now because health care is so expensive. .

Your elected officials are in on this deal. They get huge amounts of money from all parts of the health industry.

I have received over 20 calls from the DNC, DCCC, and the DSCC for contributions to see that health care is passed. I thought I did my job when I voted for them. Why do they need my money to pass health care? Don’t they have a vote in Congress? Why is it so hard for them to do the right thing without getting money? Of course they and their families have the very best of care. Paid for by us.

So nothing ever really gets done that needs done. They patch a hole here and there only when they have to, during a crisis. Even then they find a way to help themselves to more of our money.

PAUL SHANABARGER

New Springfield

Tort reform worked in Ohio

EDITOR

I am puzzled by the Sept. 11 editorial claiming that after Ohio enacted tort reform “the promised benefits have not materialized.”

I would like to refer you to a Vindicator article from Oct 6, 2002, “Doctors consider leaving as premiums continue to rise.” This article, by William K. Alcorn, the Vindicator health writer, describes the exodus of doctors from Ohio to states where tort reform was enacted, like Indiana and Wisconsin. The reason for that alarming situation was the double digit increase in malpractice insurance year after year.

As a result of this article and similar ones all across Ohio, tort reform was enacted. The results were unqualified success. The insurance premiums came down significantly and the doctors’ exodus has halted. Clearly the benefits the tort reform did materialize.

A.Z. RABINOWITZ M.D.

Liberty