Insurers rake in profits while we suffer
The top five health insurance companies - WellPoint, United Healthcare, Cigna, Aetna and Humana - recorded a combined total of $12.2 billion profits in 2009, a $4.4 billion or 56 percent increase over 2008.
Health Care For America Now says the insurers' record year was aided by three factors: Dropping customers with costly medical records; diverting spending from medical care to margins and administrative costs; and higher enrollment in public programs like Medicare Advantage that pay insurers higher fees.
Overall the insurance companies dropped 2.7 million customers from their roles last year. We are the only country that has a for-profit health care system. In your opinion is this good capitalism or Mussolini fascism? You say government can't run health care. Yet Medicare's overhead is 3 percent and our current privatized system is 35 percent. So why in God's name do you keep praising it?
We also need a constitutional amendment now because of the Supreme Court decision allowing transnational corporations to make up our laws in their favor through campaign financing. Call D.C. and ask for an amendment to the Constitution, so they are no longer employees of world corporations.
Anneliese Puthe
Carson City
Gov. Gibbons' budget cuts are no solution
This letter is for Gov. Gibbons and the members of the Legislature.
To balance the state budget, the proposals you are considering are to lay off state workers and close the prison. In my opinion, this will only add to the state's budget woes and continue to weaken our state.
As I see it, unemployment only leads to more unemployment. The people who lose their jobs will no longer be able to contribute to the economy of the state, instead they will put an additional strain on unemployment benefits and the housing meltdown. And most certainly, people who don't have jobs can't pay taxes, which will lead to bigger budget shortfalls not only for the state but city and county budgets as well - which leads to more unemployment. And so the circle continues.
Gov. Gibbons, I appreciate the fact that you wish to keep your campaign promise of no new taxes, but I'm sure that the majority of Nevada's citizens would agree with me that imposing a temporary tax until the state economy is more stable is in everybody's best interest.
Sherry Lusty
Dayton
Picking up trash showed class, civic pride
I would like to commend the anonymous woman who, in late January, got out of her car in work/business attire and high heels and proceeded to clean up trash that had been dumped at the off-ramp of Highway 395 and Arrowhead Drive.
I arrived on the scene just as she was finishing and wanted her to know that such a deed did not go unnoticed. She obviously has a great civic pride and cares for her city. Her effort was in complete contrast to the knuckleheads who, without class or conscience, had committed an obvious crime of littering. They know who they are.
A great big kudo to the lady in the high heels.
Linda Van Alfen
Carson City
Obama is spending nation into oblivion
We are now seeing the real Barack Obama. A tax-and-spend liberal Democrat on steroids who preaches do as I say, not as I do. After grandly announcing a three-year spending freeze on a few domestic programs, Obama rolled out his monumental, pork-laden budget which shows federal spending reaching more than $3.7 trillion in 2010 and $3.8 trillion in 2011. This represents a new modern era landmark for spending of more than 25 percent of GDP.
The era of big government has returned with a vengeance as Obama is growing the federal workforce to over two million this year, the largest in modern history.
Obama, Reid and Pelosi are leading the country on a path to bankruptcy. Out of touch with the people, Pelosi led a congressional junket to Copenhagen last month at taxpayer's expense. Fifteen Democrats and six Republicans, plus family and staff totaling over 100 people traveled in luxurious style, some staying in hotels costing over $2,000 per day. Millions of taxpayer dollars spent on a hoax called manmade climate change.
Pelosi uses military jets to commute weekly to San Francisco, often authorizing family members to utilize the jets as well, all at taxpayer expense. Estimates for this boondoggle are well over $1 million per year.
The voters need to clean house in November, starting with Harry Reid and all other tax-and-spend incumbents in Washington. Enough is enough.
Bill Johnston
Carson City