Published: July 10, 2009 10:34 pm      

Letters to the Editor: July 10, 2009

Government not more efficient

Uncle Chet claims that nationalized health care would be better for our country. He claims Medicare is an example of how government is more efficient: "The cost of administration is 3 percent, compared to 30 percent for the private plans."

According to the Heritage Foundation, the 3 percent figure is actually closer to 6-to-8 percent when including support from other government entities. The 30 percent figure for private plans is inaccurate. Even left-wing haven Newsweek suggests it is in the 10-to-20 percent range.

But these statistics are hardly telling. Medicare patients are by definition older and sicklier than those under private insurances. The average cost per patient is higher with someone terminally ill versus a 40-year-old person who just needs a check-up and some pain-killers.

As of 2005, administrative costs per beneficiary were $509 with Medicare and only $453 in the private sector. From 2000 through 2005, the costs were consistently higher with Medicare, ranging from 5 to 48 percent over private insurance, or an average of 24.8 percent. And Medicare does not have to contend with state-enacted "premium" taxes that private insurers must build into their "administrative" costs to the tune of 11-to-13 percent of the total premium!

Medicare is on the hook for more than $30 trillion and growing. Medicare and Medicaid will encompass about 4 percent of GDP in 2009 and 12 percent by 2050. Where is that money coming from? It is unsustainable. Given the impecunious state of the current system, why hand over control over our health to a bloated government that spends recklessly, that historically abuses the powers it has, and creates new powers that violate the constitution?

Any time you give the people running the government a little bit of power, they instantly want more. That is why government is not the answer, it is the problem.

Frederick C. Muller IV

Oneonta

A solution for Middle East peace

The Israeli prime minister has proposed a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. His "solution" would make Palestine a second-class state. That will not be acceptable to the Palestinian people. It's time for the United States to recognize it must quit trying to appease Israel and to step up and use common sense in imposing a solution, recognizing that by not doing so we're contributing to the continuation of violence in that part of the world.

What is a common-sense solution? The internationally recognized border isn't wherever Israel decides it is, it's the border established following the 1967 war. Make that the border, even though the Palestinian people would be giving up 78 percent of what was once rightfully theirs. The illegal Israeli settlements on the West Bank would become part of Palestine. The inhabitants would be Palestinian citizens, just like the Palestinians within Israel are Israeli citizens. East Jerusalem should be once again under Palestinian control, but with a Jewish neighborhood, a Muslim neighborhood, and a Christian neighborhood, dedicated to living in peace, as it once was and as it should be.

There are more than 1.6 billion Muslims in the world today. That's five times the population of the United States. We cannot continue to take a partisan position supporting Israel in this conflict without paying a steep penalty. Justice for the Palestinians must become a priority, for if there is no justice there will be no peace. The USA is neck deep in debt, and the cost of continuing military operations in the Middle East is not sustainable forever, but without an adequate solution to this conflict there is no end in sight. The time to act is now.

"The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice."_ The Rev. Theodore Parker

Ken Empey

Richfield Springs