Letters to the Editor: Thursday November 26, 2008

Published: November 26, 2008

Stop the shifting

Regarding "Lack of health coverage could hurt fans” (news story, Nov. 21): Bravo to state Insurance Commissioner Kim Holland! We shouldn’t be freeloading off our neighbors for health care and Holland deserves praise for saying so. If we could marry Holland’s idea with one put forward by state Rep. Doug Cox, to allow insurers to offer "mandate light” policies, we could move from near the bottom to the top in health insurance coverage. Insurance costs could drop dramatically if we had health insurance that didn’t include mandates or cross subsidies.

If such coverage becomes available, we should take a very dim view of anyone pushing their costs onto those who do carry insurance or onto taxpayers.

Tom Daxon, Oklahoma City

Daxon is a consultant for the Oklahoma Council of Public Affairs and authored a study of health care for that organization.

The wrong approach

Regarding "Uninsured won’t lose football tickets” (news story, Nov. 22): I notice state Insurance Commissioner Kim Holland’s ideas for penalizing the uninsured have, in retrospect, become "mostly in jest.” The threat of taking away season football tickets apparently forced the recant. The "jest” looks more like kidding on the square. However, the idea of denying the uninsured driver’s licenses, income tax personal exemptions and in-state tuition is elitist at best and denies reality. It could push wider insurance coverage further from reach.

Driver’s licenses are essential for work and for living, especially in rural areas. Would it help to force people into unemployment or into risking arrest for driving without insurance and without a valid license? Would making some people pay more taxes make health insurance more accessible? Would denying some a college education help anything?

As insurance commissioner, Holland should also know not everyone is eligible for group insurance. People who are sick or who are healthy but have risk factors can’t get private insurance, even if they can afford it. The state’s high-risk pool premiums are unaffordable for most people.

Football tickets are the least of it. This isn’t the way to address the health insurance problem.

Ann Marcy, Clinton

The real reason

Once again, Kathleen Parker (Opinion, Nov. 20) has missed the point. The presidential election didn’t go to the Democrats because the people eschewed traditional conservative/Christian beliefs but precisely because of them. Barack Obama ran on a platform of tax cuts for 95 percent of the population and change from the past eight years of out-of-control government spending, with the largest growth of government in decades. John Mc Cain ran as a government outsider and a consistent spoiler to the Republican Party’s basic ideals. Who was the conservative (at least in his campaign promises)?

The slight increase in voter turnout didn’t come from the conservatives, who either stayed home or voted for Obama. Our country remains center-right, built and based on Christian values. If the Republicans ever want to win again, we need to stop trying to be Democrats and get back to our Christian roots.

Richard Ammons, Oklahoma City

Out of touch

Kathleen Parker (Opinion, Nov. 20) attacked the clergy by saying the "gorilla in the pulpit” was, in part, cause for the failure of the Republican Party. She went on to imply that standing up for moral issues and putting God first isn’t a high priority, nor is it in the best interests of America. She also criticized Sarah Palin for her reliance on God in determining her future political plans. If all Americans would exercise Palin’s kind of faith, this would be a better country. Parker is out of touch with reality.

Burnis Campbell, Choctaw

Send a message

I’ve never been fired from a job but if I weren’t doing what I was supposed to be doing or if I were doing it poorly, I would have expected to get a warning; if I kept doing poorly, I would have expected to be fired. Nobody bails out an employee who gets fired! That employee finds his or her way into another job and works that much harder.

When car companies don’t do a good job, they get warnings in the form of quarterly financial statements showing losses. When sales or profits fall for whatever reason, dividends to shareholders are reduced and stock prices plummet. When a company puts thousands of jobs at stake and does a bad job, it gets rewarded. Why? Fire the management and replace them with better managers.

If the auto industry is bailed out, what’s next, the health care industry? Utilities? Let’s send a message to all industries. Tell your representatives in Congress not to raise taxes to bail out any industry, including the banking industry. It’s not too late to repeal and reverse a bailout bill that’s just plain wrong.

Marlina Robins, Oklahoma City

Take a pay cut

The auto industry is facing hard times. I once worked for a company that faced hard times. We employees voluntarily took a substantial pay cut and the company survived. Employees of the auto giants should take a pay cut, starting at the top. Thirty percent is not unreasonable. We will see how serious they are about saving their industry.

Ron Young, Moore

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