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Friday, September 17, 1999
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal
OUR READERS RESPOND
Organized docs
To the editor:
I feel compelled to respond to your article of Sept. 3, "Doctors vote to join union."
Dr. Maria Martinez, who is mentioned in the article, is our primary care physician. I know her to be extremely competent, dedicated and compassionate. Her only interest as a physician is the welfare of her patients. But she, as well as many other doctors, gets extremely frustrated when she has to deal with insurance companies, especially HMO's, and their anti-patient attitudes.
I belong to an HMO (the largest in Nevada) and have come to believe that it has little or no interest in patient care, only in financial gain. I guess its theory is that the less it spends on its members, the more money it has available for executive bonuses and salaries. I have heard Dr. Martinez on the phone with my HMO actually begging for it to approve tests to the point that when she hung up she was almost in tears. Doctors should not have to go through this harassment.
The same holds true for medications. The HMO dictates to the doctor which drugs the patient receives and how many -- and it takes medication off its approved list without notifying the patient or doctor. Very often, these decisions are made by a person sitting at a desk somewhere who has no medical training, and might not even be a high school graduate. But they have the power and authority to overrule a doctor. Unbelievable.
Trying to call the HMO is another exercise in futility. You are either placed on hold for an eternity or listen to a recording which states that if you leave a message, someone will call you back within 24 hours. This never happens. I often wonder how many fewer medications my wife and I would have to take if we weren't so stressed out by having to deal with our HMO. The bottom line is that it's cheaper for the HMO to let you die than to approve treatment in many instances.
I have never been a great fan of unions, but in this situation I say: Dr. Martinez, go for it.
PHILIP LEVINE
Las Vegas
Autocrats
To the editor:
I was quite upset when I read the article about the county licensing official mistaking a medical doctor for a masseur. It is another sign of the abuse of power when the bureaucrats who work in our government offices conduct themselves in such autocratic fashion.
It is scary when one sees how the encroachment of government bureaucracies has occurred in the past few decades.
I hope some vital lessons can be learned by the entire county licensing department through this experience. I was interested in your follow-up editorial the day after this article appeared, and I applaud your editorial comments.
GEORGE HOLT
Las Vegas
Worthless program
To the editor:
Every time I think the Clinton administration has reached its peak in lunacy, it finds a way to top its previous performance.
Mr. Clinton now proposes a $15 million gun buy-back program, paying $50 for each gun turned in. This is another "feel good" move to fool people into thinking the administration is fighting crime. Typically, merely the act of passing it or implementing it makes liberals feel better. A little math here shows this program would result in 0.1 percent of all guns allegedly in the United States taken off the street.
When they display scenes of pictures of citizens turning in their guns, play this game: How many gangbangers do you see? The vast majority are law-abiding citizens turning in Grandpa's rusty relic, air guns or, occasionally, a collector's item. (Guess where that one goes?)
In many cases, people turn in workable guns and use the money to buy a new one. Worse yet, because of the "no questions asked" policy, the thieves go out and steal a weapon to turn in. Has anyone ever correlated the increase in gun thefts with these buy-backs? Evidently not in Washington.
If this worthless program comes to your neighborhood, here's a suggestion: Turn in some piece of junk and send the proceeds to the National Rifle Association, Gun Owners of America, or some other cause that's protecting your right to defend yourself. If you don't believe in citizens owning guns, use this money to buy a "this house is a gun-free zone" sign and plant it on your lawn.
ALBERT KRAUSE
Mesquite
Bad payouts
To the editor:
I notice from reading the local papers that many people in Las Vegas think Nevada casinos should pay higher taxes because the casinos in the Midwest pay much higher taxes and still make lots of money. But I don't see many of these Las Vegans going to the Midwest to gamble. If they did, they would find the Midwest casinos cannot afford to have good paybacks on their games. I am sure many of the gaming taxes paid in Las Vegas derive from Midwesterner's who come there to gamble so they at least have half a chance of winning.
DILLARD McKINNEY
Oakland City, Ind.
Dietary tips
To the editor:
Last week, one of the nation's worst E. coli outbreaks killed a little girl and an elderly man and sickened nearly 500 people at a county fair near Albany, N.Y. Eight other children are in serious condition with hemolytic uremic syndrome, which leads to kidney failure and death. Cow feces in the fair's water supply is the suspected source of contamination. In 1993, four children died and more than 600 became ill from eating undercooked hamburgers at a Jack-in-the-Box fast-food restaurant in Washington.
The normally harmless E. coli and Salmonella bacteria mutate into virulent strains in the filthy, crowded cages of today's factory farms. They are immunized to life-saving antibiotics through indiscriminate use of these drugs to promote rapid growth of farmed animals.
The dramatic, widely reported epidemics account for only a small fraction of meat-borne infectious diseases. The U.S. Public Health Service estimates that several million Americans are afflicted each year and up to 9,000 killed by this preventable scourge.
But even these figures pale in comparison with the 1.4 million American deaths per year from heart disease, stroke, cancer, diabetes and other chronic diseases linked with consumption of animal fat and meat. And these are not reported at all.
What will it take for consumers to get the message? Grains, vegetable and fresh fruits contain all the nutrients we require. They don't carry diseases and they don't do drugs. They are touted by every major health advocacy organization and appear to have been the recommended fare in the Garden of Eden.
DEBBIE DILL
Las Vegas
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