We all pay for health insurance mandates
To the editor:
According to Michele Tombari's Saturday letter to the editor, there are 5,702 autistic children in Nevada and about 5,300 of those kids do not receive any insurance benefits for their illness. New legislation proposes insurance companies be mandated to provide $50,000 per year in benefits for these unfortunate kids.
Do the math. That amounts to more than $265 million every year, and that does not include the administrative costs for covering these expenses.
Insurance companies won't pay for this additional cost. It will be spread to every working family who pays for their own insurance or has employers who cover those expenses. This altruistic endeavor is nothing more than a tax on workers at a time that working Nevadans cannot afford one. Retirees younger than age 65 who pay into an insurance program also will see their costs go up.
Ms. Tombari's figures are overly optimistic, especially when she claims that costs borne by those holding medical insurance policies will go up only 1 percent. That assumes that the pool of people who can afford medical insurance will not decline. It also assumes there will not be a flood of families who, rightfully or wrongfully, claim to have a child with autism. These kids will have to be tested, at substantial additional costs, and the number of kids needing help could grow dramatically.
I do not suggest ignoring the plight of these autistic children. But to simply suggest that insurance companies foot the bill sounds easy and painless. It will definitely be financially painful. It is a mandate for working people to pay out of their weekly incomes to benefit others. It will be nothing more than an onerous tax with unintended consequences, resulting in companies reducing insurance benefits.
Autism appears to deserve serious attention, and, if the Nevada Legislature deems it appropriate, tax increases to fund appropriate relief. Let them raise taxes in the public forum. Reverting to insurance legislation is a misguided gimmick.
Bob Amundson
HENDERSON
New kind of terrorist?
To the editor:
A March 6 article in the Review-Journal really caught my eye. Four Las Vegas residents were arrested on suspicion of tax evasion, but the law enforcement group that made the arrests was the Joint Terrorism Task Force.
I was more disturbed to see that no published letters to the editor had questioned this part of the story. I guess people have forgotten Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union.
What does tax evasion have to do with terrorism? I fear for my republic.
Thomas Doyle
NORTH LAS VEGAS
Comps all around!
To the editor:
President Obama criticizes Las Vegas when, in my opinion, he acts very much like a casino boss (no offense to casino bosses). This president spends money like a casino executive, comping big spenders, only the big spenders are Democrats and the comps are tax dollars.
The reason we are in this mess is wasteful spending and far too much credit being extended, so it doesn't seem to me that's the way out.
Also, please stop calling the president's recent proposal a "budget." A budget is putting a control on spending, not the other way around.
Donna Coleman
HENDERSON
Health care reform
To the editor:
I find it interesting that President Obama will not rule out taxing income that pays for health insurance.
Didn't President Obama laugh at John McCain's suggestion of doing that while Sen. McCain was on the campaign trail? At least with Sen. McCain, he proposed a tax credit to offset any increase in tax bills. President Obama has not proposed such a tax credit -- just a tax increase.
The shoe is on the other foot now.
Bob McKinley
NORTH LAS VEGAS
Lock them up
To the editor:
Lawrence Summers, Barack Obama's top economic adviser, said on "Face the Nation" Sunday that the administration couldn't stop the payout of at least $165 million in bonuses to AIG executives after they received $170 billion in taxpayer bailouts because "you have to think about the consequences of breaking contracts for the overall system of law, for the overall financial system."
Gosh, I guess that doesn't apply to the tens of thousands of mortgage contracts they want to break.
In my opinion, the AIG executives who produced our financial panic with their credit default swap fraud should have received a swift trial instead, and should share some quality cell time with Bernie Madoff.
Jim Brown
NORTH LAS VEGAS
