LETTERS: Reduce speed limit on Blue Diamond

To the editor:

The death of a 14-year-old pedestrian on Nov. 9 again proves that state Route 160, better known as Blue Diamond Road, is one of the most dangerous places to drive in Las Vegas. This tragedy could easily have been avoided.

The legal speed limit on Blue Diamond Road is 55 mph. That’s only 10 mph slower than on Interstate 15. And with texting being habitual for most drivers, you now have a very deadly combination. Highway speeds on a regular road will always be dangerous.

Blue Diamond Road has become the autobahn of Las Vegas, and something has to be done about that. The speed limit needs to be no higher than 45 mph, with some parts of the road at 40 mph. A lower speed limit will make the road safer for drivers and pedestrians.

RAHIM ABDUL-BASSIT

NORTH LAS VEGAS

Risk corridor

To the editor:

Joseph Schillmoeller’s letter included accusations that are imaginary at best (“Risk corridor puts taxpayers on hook,” Thursday Review-Journal). He claims that the risk corridor tied to the Affordable Care Act was a back-room deal cut by President Barack Obama, Sen. Harry Reid and Rep. Nancy Pelosi that put taxpayers on the hook for insurance guarantees.

Actually Mr. Schillmoeller, the Department of Health and Human Services published the final rule on the implementation of the reinsurance, risk adjustment and risk corridor programs on March 16, 2012. The plan, known as the “3R rule,” is a temporary program designed to ease the transition between 2014 and 2016, when insurance companies will have a difficult time predicting how to set their premiums.

According to Timothy Jost, professor at Washington and Lee University, the reinsurance program will do this by collecting assessments from insured and self-insured group health plans and paying out funds to individual plans that cover high-risk individuals. The risk corridor program will collect funds from issuers of qualified health plans that have lower-than-expected costs.

Finally, the risk adjustment program will permanently shift funds from issuers of individual plans and small group plans with lower-than-average risk populations to those with higher risk populations. This discourages institutionalized risk selection and compensates insurers that cover sicker enrollees.

The use of misinformation, hyperbole and deceit is never necessary to stop something truly bad. The Affordable Care Act will work.

RICK REYNOLDS

LAS VEGAS