Unfettered Letters

Easing COBRA's squeeze

The federal stimulus package delivers newly unemployed workers some much-needed relief by subsidizing health insurance purchased through COBRA - the law that allows workers to keep their employer-provided health insurance for up to 18 months after they leave their jobs. But for some folks, COBRA plans may prove too expensive - even with the government subsidy.

Fortunately, unemployed workers have other options for maintaining coverage. The stimulus package also allows people to switch to a less expensive employer-sponsored plan, if available, when they become COBRA-eligible. And folks who opt for a cheaper employer-sponsored policy through COBRA are still eligible for the new government subsidy.

This provision will help many find a policy that fits within their budget. Laid-off workers should be sure to take advantage.

Janet Trautwein
Executive vice president and CEO
National Association of Health Underwriters
Arlington, Va.

Restrictions on COBRA assistance

Can any member of Congress who voted for the stimulus bill explain the logic for restricting the COBRA health insurance subsidy only to people who lost their jobs on or after Sept. 1? Doesn’t the person laid off Aug. 31 or July 15 or May 2 need the assistance even more?

Why legislate gross inequity with an arbitrary date? It would have made far more sense to help all of the unemployed on COBRA, including those well into their 18-month COBRA period who would receive only a partial benefit anyway.

“We didn’t have the money” would be a flat-out lie. Congress found “stimulus” dollars to potentially waste on ridiculous pet projects that won’t stimulate anything for years, such as Harry Reid’s (D-Nev.) magnetic levitation train from Las Vegas to Disneyland. The dollars could have been put to better, immediate use to help American workers and families.

Nicholas Iammartino
Leawood

Cigarette taxes and kids’ health

We have now banned smoking in restaurants and public places. So now the secondhand smoke has been banned, and our health is saved!

If smoking is so bad for us, ban it. Tell our government to stop subsidizing tobacco growers. Now we are imposing a 62 cents a pack tax on cigarettes to take care of our children’s health care (2/16, A-1, “Will cigarettes end up a lifesaver?”). Can you believe that a “health hazard” will pay for children’s health care?

What if every smoker quits, lives longer and puts a bigger burden on Social Security, which is broke, by living longer?

My solution? Everyone should smoke, pay high taxes, die sooner and save our Social Security. Should this be part of our “stimulus” package? What a country.

Al Ward
Kansas City

Being one of your senior citizens who has smoked for the past 50 years of his life, I find it quite humorous that once again we smokers have been targeted for the cure- alls of the world.

Once again I am told that it is a win-win situation. How, I haven’t quite figured out, for if all of us smokers quit like they say we will, then where will the money come from to help the poor needy children?

Big Brother seems to be looking over my shoulder again and telling me what is good for me. Trouble is, who will be watching him when he starts looking elsewhere for this cure-all?

Loyd Byfield
Kansas City

Health coverage for children

For 2006-2007, Kansas reported 58,000 children without health insurance — enough to fill the football stadium at K-State. As reported in The Star (2/16, A-1, “Will cigarettes end up a lifesaver?; A 62-cent-a-pack tax hike gives more kids health insurance”), the recent expansion of the SCHIP program will ensure that 8,000 of those children will have insurance.

Turner House Children’s Clinic provides quality primary medical care to children who otherwise would not have access to a doctor. In 2008, these children were seen in nearly 7,500 patient visits. We are one of 38 safety-net clinics throughout Kansas that share the mission of serving medically underserved children and adults.

During these challenging economic times, with more families without medical insurance, safety-net clinics are needed more than ever. Turner House Children’s Clinic exists and is ready to serve the increasing number of children who need access to quality primary care. The expanded SCHIP program will help us to accomplish this vital service.

Dennis R. Boody
Executive director, Turner House Children’s Clinic
Kansas City, Kan.

Helping uninsured kids

Kudos, especially during these difficult economic times, to the U.S. House of Representatives for passing the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) reauthorization legislation to extend coverage to an additional four million uninsured children.

There are 150,000 uninsured children in Missouri and 54,000 in Kansas. This often means they miss critical visits with pediatricians, dental exams and treatment for common childhood illnesses.

SCHIP is designed for children of parents who don’t have an affordable family health plan through their employer. It also helps the growing number of families who have lost their jobs and health insurance, but whose income is higher than the Medicaid eligibility level to receive reduced-cost health insurance for their children.

SCHIP has proved to be extremely effective in reducing the number of uninsured children in Kansas and Missouri. Every child deserves a healthy start. It is the best gift a community gives to its children and itself.

Susan S. McLoughlin
Executive director, Mother and Child Health Coalition
Kansas City

Open enrollment for Medicare Part D

On behalf of the American Stroke Foundation, I’d like to remind all seniors and those with disabilities who take part in the Medicare Part D benefit (prescription drug benefit) that now until Dec. 31 is open enrollment.

Medicare Part D beneficiaries can compare their plan against 48 other plans offered in Kansas and Missouri to make sure they’re getting the best plan that fits their needs. Each year, plans can change, and prescription needs can change as well.

In a national study, more than 80 percent of seniors have indicated they are satisfied with the Medicare Part D benefit. If you are satisfied with you plan, you won’t have to do anything to stay enrolled for next year. If you’d like to look around at other plans, please call 1-800-MEDICARE or go to www.medicare.gov

Patrick Ayers
President and CEO, American Stroke Foundation
Mission

Universal health care would benefit all

Brian Morse (12/15, Letters) noted the benefit that House Resolution 676 for health-care reform would bring to small businesses. True enough. But businesses of all sizes are hamstrung more and more each year by the ballooning expenses and problems in the current health-care system. U.S. companies, large and small, cannot compete with companies in the rest of the industrialized world as long as our health-care system is employer-based.

Americans purchasing individual health insurance plans grapple with ever-higher premiums and live with the fear that, at their insurance company’s whim, they could lose their coverage. No group plan means no group protection.

And obviously, the 47 million uninsured in the U.S. would benefit from universal health care.

I have yet to identify who (beyond the insurance industry and its lobbyists) would not benefit from single-payer, universal health care.

Mary Lindsay
Kansas City

Money-driven health care

I got the call from a computer about 8 p.m. the other night. My drug insurer is dropping my migraine medication from the 2009 formulary. The computer suggested an alternative medication.

I have suffered from migraine headaches for 55 years. About 18 months ago, the doctor prescribed a different medication. For the first time in my life I had something that would provide relief. Now it is gone. Oh! I can pay retail.

The money changers are now practicing medicine. Universal health care will be driven by the budget available. What you can have, when you can be treated and how long you will be treated will be controlled by the money changers and their computers.

My Canadian friends come to the U.S. to get the treatment they want, when they want it, and pay retail because the budget, money changers and computers are running the Canadian health system.

Richard Blaisdell
Overland Park

Unemployed and uninsured

Now I get it! As unemployment surges to unspeakable heights, my nearly two-month search for employment borders on the edge of panic. Highs and lows of multiple job search engines have provided me with more thrills than a roller coaster ride. Being acrophobic, it scares me to death.

But nothing compares to my search for health benefits for me and my two college-age children.

Sorting through various options with an insurance agent, one thing is adamantly clear: To receive adequate health coverage, my monthly premium will run between $670 and $1,300.

Given those parameters, my savings will deplete faster than you can say “health-care reform.”

Lenny Corso
Shawnee

Reining in high medical costs

Froma Harrop (12/1, Opinion, “Time to seize the day on health-care reform”) wrote that among other things the cost of “defensive medicine” — X-rays, lab tests and consultations that are medically unnecessary but legally necessary for protection in malpractice litigation — is high.

Truly, no one really knows these costs. But until the need for such extra work is dealt with, comprehensive health care is fiscally unobtainable.

Stanley Goldman
Fairway