Seniors, beware a Medicare voucher system
Congress is developing an appetite to change Medicare to a voucher system. Here is what is not being said: A voucher health care program that is not adjusted yearly to compensate for the increasing cost of health care shifts the rising cost of health care from the government to Social Security recipients.
Congress has shown no desire to introduce and pass legislation that prevents private companies from improving their bottom line at the expense of the U.S. consumer. Remember Mylan’s EpiPen price increase or Gilead Sciences’ hepatitis drug, Sovaldi, which sells for $1,000 per pill in the United States? It has shown no desire to prevent a company like Turing Pharmaceuticals from buying a patent for a drug and increasing the price from $13.50 to $750 per pill just because it could.
Congress has shown no desire to have the federal government negotiate the cost of drugs like other countries with advanced economies. That means that U.S. consumers pay most of the research and development costs of a new drug and the rest of the world benefits from lower costs.
It’s up to all of us to express our concern and unite to oppose changes to Medicare that do not protect Social Security recipients. Call and write your representatives. DAVE RIVERA West Mifflin your candidate. She lost. Fair and square.
Had the Democrats nominated someone with less baggage and a proven track record of working across the aisle, they would be celebrating today. If they had nominated someone like Vice President Joe Biden, Sen. Joe Manchin from West Virginia or former Sen. Evan Bayh from Indiana, I (and many other voters) would have enthusiastically pulled the “D” lever instead of holding my nose and pushing the “R” button.
The Democratic Party finds itself in sad political shape, not just in Washington, D.C., but in state capitals as well. It doesn’t have to stay that way. Here’s my advice to Democrats and a complicit liberal media: Stop pursuing identity politics. Stop demonizing your opponents. Stop moving farther and farther to the left. But above all, choose responsible party leaders and nominate more moderate candidates. The country is center-right. Move there and you will succeed. TIM WALTERS White Oak
This is in response to the Dec. 2 letter “There Were Flawed Leaders in the Past” in which Donald Trump fan Patricia Cain addressed “these weeping females” who believe the election is “about their feelings and emotions as women.” What rot!
She says the election was about electing a strong leader who will (1) follow the Constitution — although Mr. Trump blithely vows to restrict First Amendment freedom in multiple ways; (2) deal with foreign governments — although Mr. Trump praises dictators and promises to “bomb the [expletive]” out of countries that displease him; (3) solve economic problems — while Mr. Trump packs his new administration with Goldman Sachs sharks and foreclosure kings; and (4) be “honest and open with our people” — while every reputable fact-checking site says that no other candidate lies as much as Mr. Trump does.
Ms. Cain, you are correct in what you expect from a president. But if you take your blinders off, you will see that you are describing pretty much anybody but Donald Trump. The “weeping females” you disparage are instead angry women and men — veterans and other patriots who deplore voters who refuse to remove their blinders. SUSAN and JOHN COSGROVE Oakland