LETTERS: Affordable Care Act saving lives

To the editor:

When I saw the editorial on the Affordable Care Act, I nearly choked on my breakfast (“Promises broken,” Monday Review-Journal). The arguments that the ACA should be repealed were sheer idiocy, and the editor used a set of false equivalents to come to that conclusion.

Just the notion that getting annual physical exams is expensive because a lot of people get them at $150 a pop (less than a monthly cable bill) is completely misguided and misleading. For years, I got an annual exam. Then, due to my own laziness, I skipped a few years until my voice changed in 2009. After an initial misdiagnosis of a strained vocal cord, I lost my job before I could get a second opinion. This was before the ACA kicked in.

Three years later, the problem was found to be the very rare chondrosarcoma of the larynx. The tumor was the largest my surgeon had seen of this type, which made preserving my voice infinitely more complicated and expensive. Now, after six surgeries (the first cost more than $200,000), 18 months on disability, endless voice therapy and a year on Medicaid, I am finally feeling better. But at what cost? Certainly a lot more than the $150 annual physical.

And let’s face it, misdiagnoses have been going on far longer than the ACA has been in existence. But before the ACA, I would never have qualified for Medicaid or found insurance that would cover this preexisting condition.

So please, before you spout off the ridiculousness of Fox News (Faux News?), disguising it as NBC or NPR, think about the reality of the real people who were destroyed by the “market forces” you so exalt. These are the same market forces that were in place before the ACA went into effect. These forces raised prices substantially every year, denied tens of millions of people affordable coverage, did not focus on prevention, put millions of dollars in the pockets of insurance CEOs and did not allow for free annual physicals that save lives.

I wonder if the editor has had an annual physical this year. If not, he may want to think twice.

JOSEPH MERLINO

NORTH LAS VEGAS

Fair Yucca discussion

To the editor:

I think most people have forgotten or never paid attention to the extremely high safety standards that were set for Yucca Mountain. You would think from some of the opinions expressed that the established duration of the safe storage of nuclear materials (containers included) was maybe 100 years, rather than 1,000 or more.

Actually, the original standard was for safe storage for 10,000 years, considering the likelihood of earthquakes, groundwater intrusion and, yes, even for deterioration of the containers. But Nevada’s environmental activists complained that this standard was not long enough, so it was revised to the unheard of standard of 1 million years!

And the scientific and engineering studies conducted by our government agencies and reviewed by an impartial laboratory selected as an honest broker still met this seemingly impossible standard. It would seem that a mere thousand years would be enough, because by then our new technologies, such as the development of cold fusion energy and space travel, would make the repository outmoded and unnecessary.

But politics was the order of the day when President Barack Obama and Sen. Harry Reid finally succeeded in getting a Democrat-controlled Congress to defund the site. Now it is time to let reason and science back into the debate, and have a fair and informed discussion this time around.

LAUREN KOHN

LAS VEGAS

Clark County guardianship

To the editor:

My compliments to Colton Lochhead for the outstanding article on guardianship abuses (“The power to help, the power to abuse,” April 12 Review-Journal). The exceptional research brought the problems to life. This was a remarkable piece of journalism.

CAROLYN BOYLE

LAS VEGAS