Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, October 9, 1995 TAG: 9510090109
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
When Medicare started, doctor visits at home or in the office were $5, medicine was $2 per 100 pills, and hospitals ran well on $50 a day. Compare that with today's outrageous charges. Doctors charge $100 a visit, drugs are $100 per 100 pills, and hospitals enjoy $3,000 a day. Three very obvious reasons for this phenomenal increase are greed, greed, greed!
Medicare boasts of only a 30 percent fraudulent overcharge for nonrendered services. Charge it to government; they pay, whether it's legitimate or not. My complaint is that your reporting shows an extreme bias toward laying the blame on the elderly. We did not cause the horrendous increases by living too long or insisting on unneeded health care.
Health maintenance organizations are one answer to reasonableness in health care, because they have medical, financial managers to limit unnecessary excesses. They make profits the old-fashioned way - they earn them. Another answer is health-care providers rethinking their charges, eliminating fraud, using preventative medicine, and extending their schedules to become multimillionaires. We must allow insurers regulatory powers to set cost-efficient controls on medical providers. In most areas of HMO involvement, the company taking the risk of providing health-care dollars enjoys a profit by advocating preventive care, disallowing unneeded care, and limiting doctors, hospital and drug charges to a reasonable return to providers. This is the type of administration exercised by all companies expecting to remain in business. Unlimited, excessive charges are only possible with government-administered programs which have no management applied and a bottomless purse.
In most countries, the elderly are revered. In your newspaper, we're cast as useless parasites, condemning every other segment of the population. This picture isn't true of most of us. We remember the years of sacrifice for our children, long hours of work for security, happy family homelife. We expect nothing but your good wishes for our golden days and truth, not maliciousness.
Roanoke is truly a Garden of Eden for the elderly who have sufficient capital to live graciously. Those dependent on Social Security and Medicare need your support and understanding. Should you be very fortunate, someday you, too, will be elderly. I hope you can look back on your opinions then and be proud, not ashamed.
CHARLES S. McKINSTRY SR.
ROANOKE
Elect Averill and Falkinburg
IN RESPONSE to June Gorman's Oct. 4 letter to the editor, ``Is Averill's candidacy a joke?''
We've been living with a joke! She takes issue with Trixie Averill's candidacy, yet she said in her letter that she's only lived in Blacksburg a short while.
Roanoke city and county citizens have been living with two career politicians - House Majority Leader Richard Cranwell and Del. Chip Woodrum - for more than 10 years! Neither has had a serious challenger until now. It's time for a change.
I welcome candidates like Averill and Newell Falkinburg. They'll bring exciting leadership and new ideas as our delegates. They'll work with Gov. George Allen to bring resources to the Roanoke Valley, not be obsessive about stopping all his programs to further their political careers.
I believe Roanoke is tired of career lawyer/politicians like Cranwell and Woodrum. We don't need a Roanoke ``boss hog'' like Cranwell anymore. They vote the Democratic Party line the vast majority of the time.
Averill and Falkinburg will put Southwest Virginia first. They deserve our votes.
JAMES MIXON
ROANOKE
Our schools need Gov. Allen's help
OUR SCHOOLS are suffering because of a do-nothing governor. I read in your Sept. 25 article (``Supervisors' ruling has students hot under collar'') that Cave Spring Junior High School students do not have air conditioning in their school. I also see the classrooms are overcrowded. This is a disgrace, and I can easily see why we're 47th in education. If Gov. Grump had accepted the $2.5 million from the federal government, with no strings attached, we could have computers in the classrooms. West Virginia took theirs and put computers in kindergarten through fifth grade since they already have them in the upper grades.
Let's all give thanks to our great governor and also Pat Robertson, who could give some of his millions that he has collected from the poor and uneducated, and make it comfortable for students who are trying to get an education.
OPAL A. PRICE
BLACKSBURG
God will be O.J.'s next judge
O.J. Simpson settled it with mankind. Now he's got to settle it with God.
EDWIN R. ROBERTSON
PEARISBURG
Life goes on, with or without a paycheck
IN RESPONSE to the Oct. 2 article, ``Workfare attempt begins'':
The lady in the article is on welfare and works part time with no pay - only the experience - which, by the way, will help her in the future. She says it irks her to see other employees get their paychecks and she doesn't get one. Well, she gets hers - once a month or whenever she gets her welfare check.
Now it would be nice to work and get a paycheck and another one from welfare, too, but that's not the way it goes. The other employees are getting a paycheck they work for, and there isn't another one in the mail. Hopefully, in the future, she'll get one check - at work.
What irks me is that I've been laid off from my job, and I have to go through a hassle to get my unemployment check. Maybe she and others should have to go two places each week to put an application in. Maybe there would be less people on welfare. Also, I've been humiliated while trying to get my unemployment, and maybe will have to take a cut in pay. But I'm able and willing to work. Life goes on.
TERESA DeWEESE
ROANOKE
Rob Hagan is experienced
HOW CAN anyone seriously challenge Rob Hagan's experience as commonwealth's attorney? As assistant commonwealth's attorney for 11 years and commonwealth's attorney for four years, he has been on the front line of law enforcement in Botetourt County, prosecuting more than half of the crimes committed for the past 15 years and working daily with deputies, troopers, game wardens, clerks and judges to earn Botetourt County's reputation for tough, fair law enforcement.
Hagan is being challenged by an assistant commonwealth's attorney from Roanoke city who says that he's the ``most experienced'' candidate. What's this supposed to mean? Does the challenger have more years of experience? No, he was still in college when Hagan began prosecuting crimes in Botetourt County. Has the challenger prosecuted more cases in a crime-ridden city than Hagan has in Botetourt County? Maybe, but what of that? With a low crime rate, community service and personal attention to the rights of innocent victims and witnesses are important priorities in our county. Hagan excels in this area.
DAN MARTIN
BLUE RIDGE
Lamar needs to reverse its decision
IT IS certainly disturbing to read those ugly letters to the editor, which appeared recently on your Opinion page, in support of Lamar Advertising's rejection of the rich diversity present in the Roanoke Valley. Lamar soiled itself by choosing to be aligned with that segment of society motivated by hate rather than with the many good people who respond positively to the unifying message of diversity.
Lamar assumes that most of us consider the acceptance of diversity to be so objectionable that permitting a few billboards with an affirming message would be detrimental to the company's business interests. Lamar insults all of the Roanoke Valley by categorizing the majority of its citizens as narrow-minded, willingly ignorant, and mean. I cannot believe our valley has so far to go that this unflattering characterization is accurate. Lamar needs to reverse its decision.
DENNIS GUTHRIE
ROANOKE
by CNB