LOUD & CLEAR

Readers speak up on health care, the state of politics today and what New Mexico needs in its next governor

Campaign contributions stalling single payer

RE: LETTER From Steve Stillman published July 4: I would like to tell him that he’s right, some Democrats have had a goal of universal health care all along. Unfortunately for the Democrat Party and the country, a great percentage of them do not. Why don’t they, you may wonder? The tried and true response: “follow the money.”

The Democrats, like the Republicans, are consistently trolling for campaign contributions. According to research by the Center for Responsive Politics, Blue Cross /Blue Shield threw $25 million into the pot in 2016, the American Hospital Association chipped in $22 million, the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers donated almost $20 million, The AMA generously gave $19 million. Now that’s a cookie jar that any politician ... wants to get his hands in.

So, when you pay your insurance premium, where does it go? Some goes to bonuses and exorbitant salaries for the upper administration of the insurance company, some goes to the campaign contributions to the legislators who are opposed to single payer, and if there’s any left it goes to the doctors, nurses and technicians who actually provide you with the health care you need.

The Democrats all love HR 676, the Improved Medicare for All bill, some as a goal of passing it as a law, some as an ATM. As long as it’s just a bill, they can assure the campaign contributors that it will never pass as long as the have their hands in the cookie jar. They keep assuring us, the proponents of single payer, that they’re “reviewing” it. (U.S. rep.) Michelle Lujan Grisham has been reviewing it since she was elected, and before that (U.S. Sen. Martin) Heinrich reviewed it as a congressman, and is still, I assume, reviewing it as a senator. Neither he nor (U.S. Sen. Tom) Udall have offered to present a companion bill in the Senate.

So, I agree, some of the Democrats, 112 so far, who have co-signed HR 676, have the goal of seeing to it that health care is a human right. SALLY-ALICE THOMPSON Albuquerque

GOP health plan will create more underinsured

THERE HAS BEEN much discussion about how the Senate Better Care Reconciliation Act of 2017 (BCRA) will cause millions of people to lose their health insurance coverage, and other provisions of the bill, such as the effect on premium costs, have received much attention. Other matters, such as the under-insured population, the reach of substance abuse treatment, and the elimination of preventive medical care have received little or no attention.

In 2012, the Commonwealth Fund concluded that 31.7 million people were under-insured. Together with the 47.3 million who were uninsured at the time, it meant there were 79 million people who were at risk of not being able to afford medical care before the major reforms of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) went into effect.

The Congressional Budget Office has said the principal reason that health insurance premium costs will be lower after an initial period of higher costs under the BCRA plan, is that policies will provide less coverage. The ACA provided 10 mandatory “essential health benefits” for newly eligible Medicaid enrollees and most individual and small group health plans. Since the BCRA does not incorporate these essential benefits, many more people will fall into the ranks of the under-insured.

The BCRA initially provided only $2 billion for substance abuse and didn’t even earmark any of that money for opioid addiction treatment. As an inducement for Republican senators from states hit hard by opioid addiction to vote for the BCRA, $45 billion for opioid treatment was later added. Ohio’s governor, John Kasich, recognized the inadequacy of this added money when he said his state, with its major opioid addiction problem, would receive only a billion dollars over 10 years. He likened the effect as equivalent to “spitting in the ocean.”

Substance abuse treatment is among the required benefit categories in the ACA. Applicable plans must comply with the Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act. This act and the ACA will expand behavioral health coverage for 62.5 million persons by 2020; 32.1 million will get access to substance abuse benefits for the first time.

The ACA is chock-a-block with preventive medicine provisions, including dental and vision screenings. The fact that the BCRA does away with these ACA provisions means that future costly medical procedures, some of which may have been nipped in the bud through early detection, will drive up medical costs. LAURI E. KALLIO Albuquerque

Rep. Pearce fails those who need long-term care

IT WOULD BE poetic justice that U.S. Congressman Steve Pearce ends his life in a nursing home. New Mexico has a dismal ranking of 49th in the indicator for “affordability and access to long-term services and supports,” based on the cost of nursing home care and long-term care insurance. Medicaid pays for most of New Mexico elderly people in nursing homes.

Now our Congressman Pearce, in a disgraceful gesture to these elderly people, has voted for steep cuts in Medicaid as part of the effort to repeal the Affordable Care Act. Under federal law, state Medicaid programs are required to cover nursing home care. Under Pearce-supported legislation, New Mexico will have to drastically decrease the amount they can pay or restrict eligibility for coverage. A combination of longer life spans and spiraling health costs has left 64 percent of Americans in nursing homes dependent on Medicaid.

Pearce... has undermined New Mexicans who have worked their whole lives, some with strenuous jobs and (who have) paid into the system, (and) now is supporting a system that fails them in the last years of their life. GREG LENNES Las Cruces

Rep. Pearce would make a terrible governor

SO, STEVE PEARCE has stopped being coy and has declared his bid for N.M. governor. His recent press conference outside his district was not intended to be a start, right?

Well, as a voter in N.M. Congressional District 2, let me tell you a few things you may not know about Steve Pearce. First, he’s a nice guy, if you like the smarmy Texas type. Second, he has good constituent services people, if you aren’t poor or in Roswell. There isn’t much more good to say about him. At every chance he has voted against medical care for the poor, food for the poor, medical care for women, clean air, clean water, soil conservation, national parks and monuments, public education for all, regulation of an out-of-control banking industry, privacy of individuals, and regulation of the oil industry — or any other industry for that matter — of any kind.

At the same time he has voted for every form of corporate welfare that has come to a vote. He is for tax breaks for corporations, even the oil industry, which has been making record profits. He thinks an estate tax for estates over $5 million is outrageous. He still believes, contrary to decades of proof to the contrary, that if you give even more money to the rich, they will create more jobs. He wants your public land for drilling, not recreation. He is in favor of pipelines that endanger water sources. Want to dump your mine tailings in the nearest stream? Pearce is for it. Want to release methane into the air because investing in filters is inconvenient? Pearce is with you. Want to overgraze your land or dump your dairy’s manure-polluted water where it will pollute the water table? That’s OK with Pearce. Want to harass people of Mexican descent, make them afraid of law enforcement, run them out of the country? Pearce is on your side.

If you want more of the (Susana) Martinez administration, with an even meaner twist, Pearce is for you. He was against the only good thing I can think of Governor Martinez doing — expanding Medicaid. He will continue investing state resources in corporations: tax-free land, free buildings and building renovations, a lower corporate tax rate, few regulations, etc. Those things have been tried for years now, and New Mexico remains at the bottom of all the lists. It is time to invest our public money in the people of New Mexico.

No matter who runs against Steve Pearce, that person would be better for New Mexico. FLO WELLS Roswell

It’s not vicious rhetoric to tell the truth about Trump

I FEEL SO sorry for Judy Schuster and Al Watters who submitted letters in (the July 6) Journal. They both must be suffering amnesia. Watters’ (letter) can be understandable because he grew up about the same time I did. I remember blacks being called “the N-word” and other slurs on a regular basis, and I also remember our neighbors imploring my father to not sell our house in Gallup to a Negro when we were moving to Washington, D.C. I also remember that it was the Republicans in Congress who were instrumental in getting the Civil Rights Act and Voting Rights Acts passed over the objections of the Southern Democrats who became Republicans shortly later. All was not a rose garden back in the ’50s and ’60s. At least it wasn’t if you were a person of color, which I’m not.

I cannot claim the Democrats have helped Blacks and other minorities as we should have, but at least we try to ensure that they can vote, which can’t be said of Republicans in many places. I understand that good education and job opportunities are the only solution for the race problems we continue to have. The good education that affirms that we are all humans is needed by both the whites and the minorities.

I’m not sure why Schuster has already forgotten the slurs endured by President Obama thrown at him by Donald Trump. Trump, not yet president, assured us he had proof that President Obama was born in Kenya, obviously a lie. Is it vicious rhetoric to call a liar a liar? He also accused the former president of “wire tapping” Trump Tower, again a lie. He also says nasty things about anyone who does not bow down and worship him: political foes and news reporters. Is it vicious rhetoric to call a bum a bum? I am very sorry that I can call the president of the United States a liar and a bum, but I can only tell it as I see it. ROBERT PATTERSON Albuquerque