Letters to the Editor - 6/14/2009

Health care reform an uphill battle

Editor: Our federal government's lawmakers are studying proposals for revamping our nation's health care system. Currently, the government pays health care costs for the disabled and elderly, for poor families and for some veterans.

Government programs, such as Medicare and Medicaid, do not screen their clients for risk, and they pay employees according to civil service salary schedules. These programs are not operated to make a profit.

Private health insurance companies sell health insurance to clients who are screened carefully for pre-existing health problems by risk class and then charged appropriate premiums that also include making a profit.

Unfortunately, there are more than 47 million people in the United States who either cannot afford private health insurance or are denied coverage because of pre-existing health conditions, or their policies were cancelled after they developed serious health problems.

If the federal government would pass public universal health care, there would be no need for private health insurance companies because the public sector has already proven that it can competently provide service at lower cost than the private sector.

Private health insurance companies operate the Medicare Part D prescription drug program, and their premiums have risen faster than the non-profit government-run Medicare Part A or B programs.

Unfortunately, these private health insurance and pharmaceutical companies have powerful lobbyists in Washington who have strong influence over many members of Congress in both parties, and we don't.

Therefore, passage of a truly public universal health care program is not likely, and for-profit private participation will make it too expensive to cover everyone.

If you support a single-payer system (government) for universal health care coverage in the United States, send a copy of this letter to your congressman and to Sens. Bob Casey and Arlen Specter.

DAVID L. FAUST

Selinsgrove,

Synder County

Exchange students shown hospitality

Editor: On behalf of the foreign exchange students from Lackawanna and Luzerne counties, we would like to give thanks and appreciation for the hospitality received from the joint efforts of Lackawanna County Commissioners A.J. Munchak, Corey D. O'Brien, and Michael J. Washo, Jimmy Brozzetti and the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Yankees, and Michelle Barnard of Lackawanna County Children and Youth Services.

Through their generosity, the students thoroughly enjoyed their opportunity to attend last Sunday's Yankees game. From the commissioners' box, these students were provided with an actual taste of true American culture. The commissioners and the stadium staff took great care to provide each student with complimentary items as well as an extravagant tour of the facility.

This is the type of local hospitality that Lackawanna County and the city of Scranton should be recognized for.

DAVID H. SCHULTE III

Scranton

BARBARA BUDDA

Scranton

host FAMILIES

Get push on track

Editor: More good news was announced on June 8 regarding the resumption of rail passenger service between Scranton and the New York City area.

The time involved for environmental studies has been dramatically reduced, along with its cost. Sens. Arlen Specter and Bob Casey will be working to get federal funding for this project as soon as possible.

I spoke with an official of the United Transportation Union at the news conference. He stated that a new transportation commissioner was recently appointed for New Jersey and that the official is moving the project forward. The 7.3 miles of track near Andover, N.J., may be restored sooner than the four to five years originally projected.

The union official said he was informed that New Jersey cannot or will not do more on this project until an operating agreement is negotiated with the commonwealth of Pennsylvania.

Therefore, the ball is now in Pennsylvania's court. It is time for the various senators and Northeast Pennsylvania representatives to put pressure on Gov. Ed Rendell to get the train moving.

This money is not going to be around forever. If this project is not funded and contracted in the next two or three years, it will never happen.

DONALD A. BANKS

EXETER

Convincing treat

Editor: Oreo? Oatmeal raisin? Chocolate chip? Snickerdoodle?

If I were wracked with hunger pangs, randomly scooped out of a sweltering Afghan desert, placed in an even more sweltering holding cell for interrogation and were the recipient of the above offer of tasty treats by my captors, I would cooperate fully and tell everything I knew - or did not know - much more readily than if I were strapped down on my back and held down by some screaming simians while gallons of water were being poured down my gullet.

And according to a former FBI interrogator, the sweet-tooth approach worked much better with Abu Jandal, who was reportedly closer to Osama bin Laden than any terrorist ever rounded up.

No sleep deprivation, wrote Time Magazine correspondent Bobby Ghosh. No slapping or waterboarding, either. All it took for Mr. Jandal to open up and start singing was the offer of some sugar-free cookies. As inhumane as terrorists are, even they get regular human maladies like diabetes.

It just goes to show that batter, as in cookie batter, works, while battering, like the kind endorsed by the Bush/Cheney version of the Khmer Rouge/Spanish Inquisition, does not.

As Mr. Ghosh wrote, what the FBI interrogator witnessed suggests that the use of torture is limited at best and at its worst, counterproductive. And I believe him, because the premise is as clear-cut in theory as it is in its application.

Give a hungry man electroshock treatment and he will still be hungry. Give him a cupcake and he will tell you what he knows just to get the glass of milk to wash it down.

It's a simple premise that would escape only the most simple-minded of torture advocates. Unfortunately, at least until now, that is how the cookie - and the U.S. Constitution - has crumbled.

VINCE MORABITO

Scranton

Special delivery

Editor: It's nearly time for the distribution of the fruit and vegetable vouchers for the Farmers Market to senior citizens.

It would be accommodating if the vouchers could be distributed at each of the senior high-rise apartments in Scranton - Washington West, Jackson Heights, Mulberry Tower, etc. This would be instead of having the seniors stand in line for hours, many with walkers and canes, sometimes in hot weather.

This would also cut down the lines in other places.

PAT WISNIEWSKI

SCRANTON