Let’s keep Medicare Part D as it is today

s the former chief pilot for an Oklahoma oil company, I know a thing or two about flying. I know what it’s like when you enter into a cloud right after takeoff. Your sense of direction is nonexistent. The only thing you have to rely on are the instruments to guide you safely to your destination.

What happens when those instruments stop working?

What if you’re forced to navigate in the world with a jumbled sense of direction?

I’d imagine this must be how it feels to have Alzheimer’s disease. Fortunately, in aviation, we have sophisticated backup instruments to rely on when things fail. This is not true with Alzheimer’s.

My mother was given the diagnosis of Alzheimer’s in 2005. She died in 2015. In the beginning, she couldn’t remember the names of her grandkids; near the end she couldn’t remember to eat breakfast or get dressed. The worst thing about Alzheimer’s is that it’s finite. Even with a diagnosis of cancer there is some hope. With Alzheimer’s, it will only get worse with time, and the result is always fatal.

Currently, Medicare Part D, the prescription drug benefit, is widely used by many seniors with Alzheimer’s to provide them with medications. But it does more than that. As it stands, the free-market component of Medicare allows opportunity for biopharmaceutical companies to compete in the race for cures. And I want a cure. In 2013, a cure for Hepatitis C was introduced, an exciting development for those living with the disease. The drug came with a 90 percent cure rate, but also a whopping $84,000 price tag; however, our free-market system brought other competitors to the table who developed similar medications. Within one year, prices for the Hepatitis C medication dropped by nearly 46 percent, and today we have affordable, lifechanging care for those given this diagnosis.

The free-market system with competition does work. I would hope for the same to happen with Alzheimer’s.

U.S. Rep. Tom Cole, R-Moore, recently received an award from the National Alzheimer’s Association for his advocacy regarding Alzheimer’s. I’d like to thank him for being a mouthpiece on this issue, and to extend a recommendation to him: The free market is always the most successful way for companies and consumers to have healthy interactions.

Let’s keep the free-market component of Medicare Part D alive and abolish the notions of price controls proposed by Sen. Bernie Sanders and Co., so that advances in research can continue.

Let’s keep Medicare Part D as is so it can continue to be a pathway for medical research and ingenuity, with the deep hope that we can eventually offer a cure to the 5 million American’s living with Alzheimer’s.

Coburn still fighting

Jack Milavic (Your Views, May 14) makes the same mistake as many other Americans by relying on Congress to stop the waste, fraud and corruption in our federal government. Milavic compounds the error when he laments the loss of Oklahoma’s Tom Coburn to lead America out of its current morass.

Coburn is still fighting for us. Realizing the futility of expecting the careerists in Congress to do anything to stop the dysfunction in D.C., he left the Senate in 2014 and became the senior adviser to the Convention of States Project early in 2015. He is working with this grass-roots organization to promote an Article V amendments convention of states. In his new book, “Smashing the DC Monopoly,” Coburn explains why he gave up on Congress and how he now puts his faith in the American people to solve our national problems with an amendments convention.

Congress will never stop growing big government — the lifeblood of career politicians clinging to power and perquisites. Milavic and others understandably disenchanted with our federal leaders should look more to Coburn and his book for answers to our national dysfunction.

Potential savings for schools

One step that all local school districts could take to control future costs, eliminate waste and keep local schools is to look at the start date of instruction. Virtually all Oklahoma schools start instruction in mid-August (Oklahoma City schools begin Aug. 1). July and August are the most costly months for air conditioning. Last fall the Oklahoma City school board was advised it could save $500,000 by returning to a late August start and traditional school year. Incredibly, some staff and the majority of the board stated this was an insignificant amount. What would the overall savings be with a statewide push for later start dates? Would local districts do it on their own?

Texas, Arkansas, Missouri and other states have school start date statutes (Texas: the fourth Monday of August). In some, starting any earlier results in a deduction from state funding. Perhaps the savings on August electricity bills is one way Texas funds higher teacher pay. When local school boards describe savings as “insignificant” in a time of statewide budget cuts, it’s time for a statute on a common-sense solution.

A reason to act

As a nurse, I have seen thousands of patients come through St. Anthony Hospital over the years. No one is turned away. Every year, we navigate the ever-shifting waters of reimbursement to remain afloat. But unlike many others, we serve the neediest of the needy, the poor, the homeless, the addicted and the mentally ill. Plus, we receive patients from outside the metro area. Recently, a man from rural Oklahoma came to our hospital having a heart attack. From the beginning of a heart attack, we have about 90 minutes to perform a procedure to prevent permanent damage. He came to us from an hour away, but we made it happen. He went from a 90 percent chance of dying to a 90 percent chance of living a normal life.

There is nobody to pay for the tens of thousands of dollars of care the patient received. Yet we are providing quality care. Our Legislature continues to vote down bills that would help provide funding for patients like this. Less funding means lower wages. Lower wages mean fewer staff members. Fewer staff members mean slower response times. Slower response times mean a 90 percent chance of dying instead of 90 percent chance of living.

I’m not an attorney or a lawmaker. Just a nurse, for almost 40 years. But it’s clear the Legislature must act so we can continue to provide quality health care in Oklahoma.