If Obamacare is repealed, Congress must restore Medicare funds to hospitals

If Obamacare is repealed, Congress must restore Medicare funds to hospitals

Congress and Presi- dent-elect Donald J. Trump have promised to repeal the Affordable Care Act this year. If they are successful, it is imperative that they restore critical Medicare payment cuts to hospitals and clinics that were embedded in the ACA and that are so important to caregivers in Ohio. If this does not happen, it will create major obstacles to people seeking care, especially among the poor, disabled, elderly and rural residents.

As a hospital administrator with 30 years of experience in the health-care industry, I am responsible for running day-to-day operations here at Trumbull Memorial Hospital and Hillside Rehabilitation Hospital. That means constantly improving the quality of our patient care, preparing for our future needs and managing the Medicare and Medicaid programs to ensure we can continue to meet the needs of the community.

Because the ACA included steep cuts in payments to hospitals from Medicare and Medicaid, I am deeply concerned about the access-to-care crisis that will result from congressional inaction to restore this essential funding. If the law is repealed and Congress does not act to restore the cuts, it will cost U.S. hospitals more than $400 billion, on top of the $150 billion we’ve already shouldered in recent years because of other government actions.

As a result, many facilities – especially the community hospitals and clinics that more often cater to the needs of low- income and elderly patients – will be forced to shut their doors or stop providing certain specialty care. These facilities will find it almost impossible to make ends meet since they receive about half of their funding from Medicare and Medicaid. Rural hospitals will be especially hard hit.

In every community where this happens, patients will lose access to the medical care they need. For ongoing treatment, it means patients will need to travel farther for care. In emergency situations, it can mean the difference between life and death for patients who don’t have the time to travel long distances for acute injuries or illnesses. And, in many cases, these cuts could mean that good jobs, people’s livelihoods, will be at stake. This is as unacceptable as it is unnecessary.

At ValleyCare Health System of Ohio, we will do our best to always meet the highest level of quality and maintain critical jobs, but Congress’s actions could handcuff our ability to protect this community.

If the ACA is going to be repealed, Congress must ensure hospitals are made whole and restore its deep Medicare cuts. Let’s make sure our members of Congress keep their promise to protect Medicare. Our community is counting on it.

John Walsh, Warren

John Walsh serves as chief executive officer at Trumbull Memorial Hospital and Hillside Rehabilitation Hospital. He is also the chief operating officer for ValleyCare Health System of Ohio.

Tim Ryan’s vote supports Israel’s religious radicals

In late 2016, the United Nations Security Council voted unanimously to deem the Israeli settlements built on stolen Palestinian land as illegal. The U.S. House of Representatives recently overwhelmingly voted to condemn the vote by the U.N. as being anti-Israel.

The illegal Israeli settlements in Palestine are built on stolen, water-rich land owned by Palestinians. The Israeli settlers mostly come from Europe and Russia, are armed by the Israeli government, and take the land by force with the protection of the Israeli army.

The armed settlers wreak havoc on the native Palestinian community by stealing their water wells; releasing wild hogs into Palestinian farms to destroy crops; setting fire to olive tree orchards 3,000-plus years old; burning tires and rolling them into mosques during prayer; digging up major Palestinian roadways effectively land-locking commerce and travel; and throwing rocks at windshields of Palestinian cars in oncoming traffic (Palestinians have to have a different license plate color making them easily identifiable – complete discrimination).

This is all in the name of religious ideology that mainstream and even Orthodox Jews are starting to abandon. The U.N. vote, though it might not change the reality on the ground, was symbolic in that the world finally identified this activity as illegal and anti-peace.

The vote in Congress was also symbolic of how blindly and staunchly our elected representatives support Israel. It is absolutely forbidden to say anything bad about Israel, even when they are wrong.

Sadly, Congressman Tim Ryan, by voting to condemn the U.N.’s vote, submitted his vote in support of ideological religious radicalism.

Hanna Kassis, Lakewood

Hanna Kassis, a native of Girard, is a licensed CPA and attorney in Ohio.

Golden Globes is no place for Meryl Streep criticism

I have long been a fan of actress Meryl Streep, but she killed that with her comments on President-elect Donald Trump at the Golden Globe Awards last weekend.

Unfortunately, she used one of her last moments of deserved glory to beat a dead horse. Where was she in November 2015 after this incident about the disable New York Times reporter first came up?

The Golden Globes Awards program was not the place to try to legitimize her babble.

Actors like her are entitled to their feelings but not there at an awards ceremony. It they have an opinion based on fact, then hold a press conference if you can and speak out.

I firmly believe now that our president-elect was just joking about a media person who lost it and not about the reporter’s disability.

If you want to politicize do so independently, not with a captive audience but speak to supporters and provide validity with the offended party present and show solid evidence.

Daniel Victor Bienko, Canfield

Superpowers of the world ignore genocide in Burma

One of the world’s worst human-rights crises is going on and so many haven’t even heard of it.

The ethnic Rohingya Muslims are undergoing what some consider to be a genocide, due to the extreme persecution they face in Burma. Their 1.3 million population is denied citizenship, have no formal rights, virtually no access to health care or education, and face extreme racial and ethnic discrimination.

Over 140,000 Rohingyas are internally displaced, and many of them are living in camps that are routinely attacked by paramilitary groups.

Thousands have attempted to flee to surrounding countries such as Bangladesh, but they are brutally denied access and sent back.

The first step in solving a problem is recognizing it exists. The mainstream television media is a failure, time and time again losing focus on its main purpose – to raise awareness for what matters.

Moreover, the world’s superpowers turning largely a blind eye besides mere verbal condemnations when an atrocity of this proportion is going on is plain sick.

With Syria, with the Rohingya, and now with South Sudan in complete chaos because of their civil war, it’s time for the powers of the world to at least agree on one issue: the welfare of humanity.

Labeeb Ahmad, North Canton

Labeeb Ahmad is vice chairman of the Muslim Writers Guild of America.

Donald Trump owes all disabled an apology

I think that President- elect Donald Trump should make a public apology on television and in the newspapers about making fun of handicapped and disabled people.

I’m handicapped and disabled also. When Trump made fun of the disabled newspaper reporter and it became news all over the world. I didn’t appreciate it one bit.

That’s what definitely made me strongly against Trump.

Jeanie Gerlach, Youngstown