Healthcare

Healthcare reform

I had to laugh at the editorial in Thursday’s Opinion section about U.S. Rep Michael Burgess’ library event. (See: "A stunt without a purpose")

As it accurately pointed out, reading the entire bill in a short amount of time would be very difficult for the normal person who has not mastered the Evelyn Wood Speed Reading system. In fact, until recently Congress and its leadership did not seem to be interested in letting us see the proposed bill before they voted on it.

My guess is that the vast majority of elected officials have no plan to spend time reading the 1,990-plus page timber-industry stimulus package. In this age of congressional theatrics, Burgess’ attempt to inform the public could have been misinterpreted. However, with a cast of 534 other characters working in Washington who are probably much better thespians, I applaud his efforts and his good intentions in representing Texans. I don’t know that anyone else even took time to try to do the same.

— Michael T. Muhm, Colleyville

Why would AARP come out and throw its weight behind the healthcare bill? Could it be that AARP is one of the biggest insurance companies selling Medicare supplemental insurance coverage?

— David J. Simons, Fort Worth

When it comes to healthcare "reform", the Senate and House proposals are full of contradictions. On the one hand, they revile the insurance companies, yet they propose bills forcing all individuals to buy insurance. Likewise, they say our current system is overpriced, yet we can only save money by spending another trillion dollars or so.

Our Congress simply needs to get over its obsession with the concept of using insurance to deliver comprehensive healthcare. Insurance never made anyone healthy.

The whole point of insurance is to share the risk of uncommon and rare events. Insurance is great for covering major/catastrophic medical expenses, but as a vehicle for delivering everyday healthcare, it only adds the hassle and expense of a middleman.

More importantly, it removes the consumer from the negotiating process.

The key to bring down the cost of healthcare is a free market where the consumer is not isolated from the provider by insurance companies, employers or even the government. Insurance plans should focus on major medical and catastrophic coverage, disability and perhaps even income insurance during health care events. We need to start spending our former insurance premiums and deductibles directly on healthcare expenses and cut out the middleman.

— Mark A.Clark, Weatherford

In response to the Oct. 31 letter, "Uninsured children data tragic": The writer concluded that our country is giving Christianity a bad name because we are not providing healthcare to everyone. I have one question; doesn’t Christianity teach that it is immoral to take personal property from someone? That is exactly what would happen under a government-sponsored universal healthcare system.

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