Reid’s bill gives the sick cost certainty

To the editor:

In response to Tuesday's letter by John Tobin: It's clear that Mr. Tobin is getting his information on the health care bill from the right-wing blogs and not from the bill itself. His attack on Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid was outrageous. What does the health care bill really do?

It closes the gap in prescription drug coverage for all on Medicare. At the peak of baby boomer retirement, there will be close to 90 million on Medicare that will benefit from this provision.

It allows parents to keep their children in their insurance policies until they're 26 years old. This will help to keep our children healthy and insured. It's people under 30 who are most likely to be uninsured. This is also the group most likely to have outstanding medical debt and to be pursued by collection agencies.

Young people are also most likely to end up in the emergency room for some type of accident or trauma care, resulting in emergency room crowding. Young people are the least likely among us to be able to pay the sky-high emergency room bills. Why do you think hospitals across the country like UMC are struggling with billions of dollars in uncompensated services?

The bill also puts limits on yearly out-of-pocket costs. Folks who are struggling with diabetes, Crohn's disease, asthma and cancer are finally going to get some relief before becoming completely impoverished and on Medicaid. I have a good friend who's been suffering with Crohn's disease for more than 10 years now. Her digestive system is inflamed from her throat all the way down to the end of her intestines. It costs her between $25,000 and $40,000 a year in medical expenses just to keep from dying -- and that is with comprehensive insurance! The new bill will limit out-of-pocket expenses to $5,000 a year.

Finally, the bill will allow people with serious medical problems to shop for an insurance plan that meets their needs, and then buy it.

The bill does something that our health care system has lacked for generations. It addresses issues facing people who are seriously ill and have to deal with enormous medical costs.

Obviously, Mr. Tobin is in good health and doesn't have a clue to as to what the elderly, seriously ill and dying citizens of this country have to deal with.

Gerry Hageman

LAS VEGAS

Woeful ignorance

To the editor:

The tragedy of Lori Sublette's woeful ignorance lies in the relative ease with which her defenders seem able to equate the Holocaust-denying, Clark County School District gym teacher's "beliefs" with historical fact. The depth of this ignorance is further demonstrated by the picture on their Facebook page, which shows a montage of symbols including a swastika and a peace sign, as if all ideas are equal (Dec. 24 Review-Journal).

All ideas are not equal. In fact, some ideas are just plain wrong and should be relegated to the rubbish bin of history.

Kevin Kolkoski

LAS VEGAS

Spend, spend, spend

To the editor:

In the last year of the Bush administration, we had a "stimulus" of $165 billion, a $300 billion housing bailout and a $700 billion bank bailout.

In the first year of the Obama administration, we had a $787 billion "stimulus" bill (unemployment continues to rise), an increase in the debt ceiling to more than $12 trillion, with more to come next year, and talk of another $150 billion "jobs bill." We will soon have trillions more dollars spent on a "health care" bill.

And when people show up at tea parties to protest this insane spending, we are called every name in the book. I have one thing to say to the Democrats now controlling both houses of Congress and the White House: If the House of Representatives caves and removes the Stupak amendment (no taxpayer-funded abortions), you haven't seen anything yet!

Robert Gardner

HENDERSON

Repeating history

To the editor:

It has been said that those who fail to remember the past are destined to repeat it. In this short-attention-span world we live in, the "past" is now measured in months, not years.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's glee in "selling" the nation on his health care bill's "three-year full funding of Nevada's Medicaid expansion" is nothing more than a three-year, interest-only loan on a program we cannot afford.

I thought we learned our lesson with the mortgage debacle. Pity how short our memories are. History repeats itself.

D. Michael Heffley

HENDERSON