Senator’s concern is one-sided

Senator’s concern is one-sided

Although the final health- care-reform bill won’t solve all the problems of our profit-rather-than-patient-driven health-care industry, citizens will finally have protections against insurance company abuses like denial for pre-existing conditions, caps on lifetime benefits and loss of coverage for the crime of actually getting sick.

I have a few words, though, for U.S. Sen. George Voinovich who opposes health-care reform because he claims concern for the cost. As I asked the 20-something staffer from his local office making $80,000 a year as a federal government employee with top of line health care coverage, where is your boss’s concern over the cost of his health care to the U.S. Treasury?

In the 11 years that George Voinovich has been a U.S. senator he has received approximately $100,000 from taxpayers to pay for his health insurance.

Taxpayers pay approximately 75 percent of health insurance premiums for federal employees in Ohio. That’s according to the 2010 Plan Information for Ohio found on the federal Office of Personnel Management web site. This means taxpayers pay between $8,000 to $12,000 each year for a federal employee’s family health plan, including George Voinovich’s.

Where is his outrage over that cost to the budget?

If the health of any federal employee is worth that much each year, then so is the health of the uninsured truck driver or nurse’s aide or store clerk or shop owner. Or any fellow American.

Bill Adams, Austintown