Letters to the Editor

David Horsey's Thursday cartoon indicates that people on Medicare have it good. Now for the facts: Did you know that doctors can send their bills to Medicare and then Medicare allows what it thinks the doctor should have?

My supplemental insurance covers only 20 percent of the allowed amount by Medicare. The doctors are being cut down so far, some are now refusing to accept any more Medicare patients. Medicare recipients are between a rock and hard place. We would like to get out of this tax-happy town, but cannot leave because of the limits it would put on our health care.

Horsey also implies that people who have regular insurance are being hurt.

Most of the money for insurance is paid out to the consumers. Since former state Insurance Commissioner Deborah Senn ran all the insurance companies out of Washington, there is not much choice. She elected make into law that insurance providers had to pay for everything on every policy. In the days when a business wanted a certain type of policy, it was sold to them.

There is no reason to charge everyone for pregnancy care in an office that consists of all single men. Thanks to Senn, everyone is covered for everything now, and everyone pays dearly.

What I'm saying to Horsey is to get all his ducks in a row before he blames insurance companies for everything. And, believe me, Medicare is no picnic.

If Horsey wants to complain about health care, let him do some cartoons on the fact that our esteemed representatives in Washington, D.C., get full coverage for the rest of their lives at no cost to them. Put them on Medicare, like the rest of us.

Nyda May
Seattle

For-profit insurance does serve consumers

I suggest that David Horsey's editorial cartoon in Thursday's paper be given space on the front page.

Premera Blue Cross' campaign to convert to a profit organization will not properly serve the citizens of Washington.

George Young
Vancouver

Current system product of government policy

David Horsey's Thursday cartoon extolling Medicare over what he calls the "market-driven" health care system lacks both accuracy and insight, offering up instead simplistic pabulum. He misses the point we have nothing like a market-driven health care system.

Our current system is the product of government policies, ranging from tax policies that remove normal consumer behavior by shifting the purchase to an uninvolved third party (employers) to over demand induced by such a shift and by the very Medicare he favors. Only ignorance of these basic facts can lead him to a solution that removes the consumer even further from the equation and creates an even stronger entitlement mentality via more universal Medicare.

To address issues with the current system, the answer is to rectify skewing by government policies and reintroduce the consumer (and his own pocketbook) into the equation -- to move toward a market-driven system, which would be a novelty.

Other writers will no doubt challenge Horsey's fanciful notion that a government program can deliver 97 percent benefits with only 3 percent overhead.

Scott Fallon
Bellevue

Actual dollar amounts tell a different story

David Horsey must have read an article by a pro-Medicare doctor and ran with it in his cartoon of Thursday. Administrative costs of 3 percent certainly do seem impressive, until you see the actual dollar amounts. In 1999, Medicare spent $128.8 billion on "Part A" benefits and $80.7 billion on "Part B" benefits. Add the 3 percent administrative cost to this and you get $6.285 billion, or just more than $17.2 million per day.

Now does it sound like a government operation?

John Bradford
Poulsbo

ANTI-WAR MARCH

Man flies 3,000 miles to make important point

I am flying to Washington, D.C., to join the anti-war march on Oct. 26. This is a considerable commitment of time, money and energy. Why am I doing it?

In April 1971, when I was an impulsive, long-haired pacifist of 16, I joined my sister in the Moratorium March on Washington against the Vietnam War with 200,000 others. My youthful idealism was reinforced and sustained as the force of public opinion turned the wheel of history, and the Vietnam war machine ground to a halt.

Some of my idealism has survived the ensuing decades. At the same time, I consider myself fairly well informed about the politics and government of our era, and I am deeply distrustful of the current administration.

A recent article, "The Push for War" by Anatol Lieven in the London Review of Books, lays bare a convincing and deeply disturbing picture of the goals of the Bush administration. The hawks and wolves in the president's shadow envision a world dominated by U.S. military might, where corporate interests, the oil industry in particular, can operate unchallenged anywhere in the world. Implicit in this new doctrine is that when opposition to U.S. policy anywhere in the world is made impossible, opposition at home will be no less so.

The dots in my own mind are connecting, and I am convinced that it is time for Americans again to blow the whistle on the government. Our freedoms not only entitle but obligate us to resist illegal and immoral actions by our government in our name.

Millions of Americans long for a nation that uses its ingenuity, wealth and generosity to help eradicate hunger, disease, inequity and the intractable ravages of violence and reprisal. But the wheels of the military-industrial-energy complex, so deeply embedded in our economy and in the current administration, grind forward, and it will take a lot of bodies in the streets to bring them to a halt.

It can be done; we must insist upon it.

Like the rash teenager that I was, America must move beyond adolescence and learn to use its idealism and strength peacefully and humbly among civilized nations to create a secure world.

William W. Rose
Seattle

POLICE

Law enforcement officers are true heroes of our day

Why would anyone want to be a police officer? The rank and file are grossly underpaid and sadly overworked. If a police officer uses common sense, he or she is often crucified in an inquest or a trial by the media. A police officer risks his life every day. Not only does he risk his life, but statistics prove that a police officer's marriage and family are always at risk, due to the stress and danger.

We use the word hero loosely, but the real hero of our time is the police officer. Politicians want to cut funds for police and fire personnel. I say let's cut the politicians' pay. Fifty mayors and governors combined cannot equal the courage and accomplishments of King County sheriff's Deputy Richard Herzog or Des Moines police officer Steven Underwood (both shot to death in the line of duty). Instead of cutting funds for police and fire, their funds should be tripled, but I won't hold my breath.

Dan Puetz
Seattle

REFERENDUM 51

Passage will help assure dependence on foreign oil

Missing from most of the coverage and commentary on Referendum 51, the $7.7 billion transportation package before voters Nov. 5, is any discussion of how this issue relates to events on the national and international stage.

The major share of R-51's tax hike would go for additional highway lanes, many of them outside urban growth boundaries. Far from providing traffic relief anytime in the near future, this prospective new capacity would simply fuel tomorrow's new far-flung sprawl-and-mall development, locking in auto-dominance, longer commutes and an escalating thirst for fossil fuels.

We are now on the brink of initiating a war that could have devastating consequences for our nation and for civilization itself. Behind the rhetoric of confronting terrorism is the undeniable impetus to secure the oil resources controlled by a hostile Iraq regime.

Whether we blame the ruling "oligarchy," our burgeoning consumption habits assure our dependence on foreign oil and endless oil wars. Also at stake are the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and other pristine ecosystems, along with the atmosphere, as climate change becomes more apparent and devastating.

If we care about world peace and the environment our children and theirs will inherit, why would we approve a measure that would perpetuate our past failures?

Please vote no on R-51 and tell your legislators to pass a measure that will really underwrite transportation choice, fix safety problems and retrofit against earthquake hazard.

Peggy Bruton
Olympia

R-51 is what we need: Immediate fix

I am writing to express my support for Referendum 51.This state has neglected its transportation system for at least 20 years, if not longer. So it upsets me when I hear opponents of R-51 say we should wait for a better solution. I have lived in Washington all of my life and traffic progressively has gotten worse and worse; if we wait any longer, solving our problems is only going to get more expensive.

R-51 is not perfect, but it places a high priority on fixing the most dangerous areas in our state. I live in Renton and can tell you that the people here in South King County will be very happy to have work done on Interstate 405, especially the interchange between 405 and state Route 167, one of the most congested and dangerous stretches of road around. R-51 will help create safer roads, bring about traffic relief and provide accountability with quarterly audits. But R-51 will also do one more very important thing: improve the quality of life for people sick of being stuck in traffic.

Vote yes on Nov. 5.

Susan C. Sheary
Renton

Say no to more cars and more pollution

I believe most voters would be willing to grant a gas tax increase if it would significantly resolve some of the more pressing transportation

problems of the state. Problem is, after reading the pros and cons, I think most voters would have to conclude that R-51 is an exercise in futility.

The flaws in R-51 are significant and I think could be summed up by saying that Washington voters are being asked to follow the same disastrous course taken in the Los Angeles area years ago -- pave your way out of congestion.

Southern California showed us that no matter how much you raise gas taxes and how much more asphalt you put down, urban sprawl will put more vehicles on the road and more pollution into the atmosphere than any government can make right.

It's an overused term, but maybe it is time to think outside the box. In Los Angeles I saw congestion relieved greatly by an experimental banning of big rig trucks from the freeways during morning and afternoon rush hours -- not very popular with truckers but very effective. Four of us formed a car pool that replaced four cars on the road with one and significantly reduced our cost of commuting. Southern California light rail, the Metro-Link, is gradually expanding service and catching on with commuters.

Eventually it will have a positive impact. It's a long slow process, but businesses are relocating from central city locations to areas where their employees prefer to live.

Here in Washington we should take another serious look at the gas-guzzling, fume-belching automobile that is at the heart of this problem. The Legislature should consider financial incentives for owning smaller, more efficient hybrid and electric cars. Cities should consider putting parking structures around city centers and banning cars entirely from downtown streets. The fragmented, warring transportation interests should be reined in at the state level and some coordination imposed.

I don't have the answers, but the R-51 approach, more lanes on our freeways is a 20th century fix, obsolete technology for the 21st century and beyond.

David Ogilvie
Gig Harbor

Sculptures create even more gridlock

The state Department of Transportation appears to have come up with an alternative funding source. Allow pompous "artists" to pay for the privilege of erecting eye-catching eyesores next to the 520 Bridge.

Every day thousands of people cross that bridge and accidents or distractions causes losses of thousands of hours in productivity and untold added stress. What kind of thinking allows such a project to occur when highways are so crowded? How can "art" be used to justify gridlock at 10:30 in the morning?

The artist, Max Gurvich, thinks he is improving the quality of life, but it is clear that he and the brainiacs at DOT don't drive that bridge.

Sean O'Brien
Seattle

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