Average folks have answers

Average folks have answers

EDITOR:

The real ways to fix health care costs have not yet been addressed by any of the nation’s top policymakers, although average citizens are hitting on many of the answers. Thomas Lamb of Youngstown gave an interesting list of health-care executives’ salaries in a recent Vindicator showing nine top executives earned $160 million. These CEOs don’t get any flack from other corporate leaders because they, too, are filling up at the trough. The heads of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac at the time of last fall’s real estate crash were each earning over $14 million per year. Our own beloved Dr. David Sweet, president of YSU, had an entertainment budget alone of $35,000 in 2006, which is more than I earn working two jobs.

Dr. Thomas Kaminski, in the same issue, pointed out “the scourge of defensive medicine,” as he accurately put it. Why do doctors order X-rays and MRIs when someone goes to the emergency room with a stomach ache? Because they’re afraid of frivolous lawsuits. And also because some of them have a financial interest in outpatient labs. Medical malpractice insurance adds from $17,000 to $250,000 per year to a doctor’s overhead. No wonder they dance to whatever tune the insurance companies play.

I am also critical of television and magazine advertising by pharmaceutical companies. Medications cost more than most of us can afford these days. These costs factor into our high health insurance rates. Only two countries in the world allow such television advertising: the U.S.A., and New Zealand. And what about the last time you saw a glossy, full-color, three-page spread in a popular national magazine? It probably cost upwards of a half-million dollars for one ad. With the internet at their fingertips, there’s no need for advertising that boosts the costs of drugs in that way. And while we’re at it, let’s cut out advertising for the lawyers.

And let’s fix CEO salaries — in all industries. Top-earning executives would call me a socialist, but I’m just a good citizen who’s saying let’s put an honest price on a day’s work.

Policy wonks should quit scaring people about how we won’t be able to choose our doctors, and we won’t be able to get an appointment for ages. Isn’t that already true? Average citizens are hitting on the answers, but the bigwigs just don’t want to hear them.

LINDA RICHTER

Niles

Keep our children safe

EDITOR:

Like many Americans on both sides of the various issues we face today, I have hopes and dreams for our country. Lately I have become outraged over one issue that surely no citizen can take a stand against. Why can’t America be a safe place for our children to live?

Every day on television, in newspapers and on the internet another child murdered, another child beaten, another child raped. It may be a parent, a babysitter, a neighbor, a family friend, or a stranger. It may be an alcoholic, a drug addict, or an already registered sex offender. I really no longer care who it is — I am sick of it. I want to be able to say that these crimes cannot be committed in America. I want to truthfully tell my grandchildren that they are safe. Why on earth is that too much to ask? What can be done? Who can do it? I’m in. Let’s find a way.

Our country should be safe for our children.

DARLA BEACH

Girard