Study shows individual coverage mandate works

To the editor:

There is a message for us in the Commonwealth Fund ranking Las Vegas 268th out of 306 cities in providing health care to its citizens ("LV health care ailing," Wednesday Review-Journal).

Massachusetts has RomneyCare, which requires all citizens to have health insurance. Ninety-five percent of the residents there have health insurance, which means that when a resident has a serious medical problem, the insurance companies pay most of the bills and taxpayers are not on the hook.

Compare that to Las Vegas, where some 30 percent of the population do not have health insurance. And when any of these 275,000 or so have a serious medical problem and can't pay the bill, we taxpayers have to make up for the shortfall. The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ObamaCare) also requires all citizens to have health insurance coverage.

It's a requirement that Republicans strongly object to, and they are threatening to repeal ObamaCare. If Republicans get their way, it would mean 50,000,000 Americans would not be insured, and just as in Las Vegas, taxpayers would have to make up for the unpaid bills.

Warts and all, ObamaCare is the best deal for us.

RICHARD J. MUNDY

LAS VEGAS

A win for taxpayers

To the editor:

Kudos to Clark County Sheriff Doug Gillespie for holding his ground and not settling the Erik Scott shooting case ("Scott's kin giving up civil action," Wednesday Review-Journal). If there ever were a justified use of deadly force by police, that was it.

If a shooting is truly wrong, then the families should be compensated. This was not the case in this incident.

It's about time Las Vegas police stopped rolling over for every lawsuit and started judging each case on its merits rather than the socioeconomic status of the decedent.

JOE MOLINARO

HENDERSON

Nye County needs jobs

To the editor:

In response to your March 10 article, "Nye officials give consent to burying nuke waste":

History repeats itself. I worked in Carlsbad, N.M., at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant, where the federal government buries transuranic waste.

The area's mines were closed, and the town had no other industrial activities. The Department of Energy put its project there, in a salt dome. They hired the laid-off miners, provided jobs for maintenance workers and service industries and brought in new workers in high-paying jobs. The town grew.

Their main opposition was from the towns that were hundreds of miles away. Does this sound familiar with Nye County and the Yucca Mountain Project? Nye County wants people working.

I haven't seen the senators or congressmen provide jobs for the local people. I haven't seen any of the state agencies coming up with new industries or business for Nye County.

The Nevada Test Site already has radioactive and hazardous waste stored there. Why do the federal government and the state have a double-standard? If this issue is dead, why does our state still keep people employed to fight this problem? I am looking for an answer.

TOM McCARTHY

LAS VEGAS

Job killer

To the editor:

So Gov. Brian Sandoval said no to the Yucca Mountain Project despite Nye County's desire to have it constructed ("Sandoval: Despite what Nye says, he says no to Yucca," Tuesday Review-Journal).

The governor has never made his position clear as to why he does not want nuclear waste stored at Yucca Mountain. His argument, so far, is not based upon scientific evidence. The naysayers likewise have no valid reason, other than political considerations, why the Yucca Mountain repository should not be constructed.

So the governor is saying no to 35,000 high-paying jobs. Saying no to the infusion of science and technology at UNLV. Saying no to his one and only opportunity to pay down the $9 billion in unfunded liabilities the state of Nevada currently carries for government retirees.

On average, there is a 1 to 3 multiplier for jobs, so the 35,000 workers at Yucca Mountain would create approximately 100,000 more jobs.

This is a very long-term endeavor, unlike the casino construction in recent years.

Edward Meigs

Las Vegas