Health care ideas a waste of ink

I wish to respond to your Tuesday editorial on health care reform. In the words of an icon, “There you go again.”

Your banal but subtle amber prose likens delivering and paying for health care to shopping for shoes. As someone in a specialized area of pediatric care, I have thought about how we as physicians and we as a people could better provide for the health care needs of both the well and the sick. I have no comprehensive answer. But I do know that you did not thoughtfully add to the discussion with your superficial harangue.

You talk about “stripped-down,” less expensive health plans rather than those that provide for “politically favored coverages.” I wonder what you would eliminate in your cheap plans — heart surgery, intensive care or brain surgery? But I guess you would decide based on your vast store of medical knowledge. You talk about states being “encouraged” to allow anyone to practice medicine (“anyone who meets fixed standards” — whatever that means) and lowering prices. How, again, does a state “encourage”? Do they ask nicely? No, they pass laws. Do not use euphemisms.

Your best “idea” is that prices for health care should be posted. There may be a role for this for some services. But let us take a real-life example. You have chest pain. You are having a heart attack. Your doctor and your hospital give you the price list and ask you whether you want the $10,000 operation using the less-expensive equipment or the $30,000 one with the better equipment that those who are more financially well-off can afford.

Improving our system of health care delivery will be complex. Your opinions and writings have done little to advance the serious discussion. As I said, neither I nor all the plans that politicians have proposed have the complete answer, but at least some in both political parties are trying to come up with solutions. I believe the vast majority of Americans of good will, seeking common ground, will advance constructive ideas. Your superficial approach will not be among them.

William N. Evans, M.D.

LAS VEGAS

Alternative energy

To the editor:

In his Tuesday letter, Bill Dirkse mocks Nevada Sen. Harry Reid and the impact of coal-fired power plants on global warming with all the conviction and sincerity that the Catholic Church used to mock Galileo’s fact-based assertion that Earth revolved around the sun.

It took the Catholic Church 350 years to admit Galileo was right, so I don’t anticipate folks like Mr. Dirkse to be swayed by facts any time soon. I do appreciate Sen. Reid’s ability to face the truth and lead on this issue, because it is action-based leadership that focuses on what can and should be done with a renewable energy future. The senator deserves our support because there are many Bill Dirkses out there who won’t be around 350 years from now to apologize for getting it so wrong.

John Wallin

RENO

THE WRITER IS DIRECTOR OF THE NEVADA WILDERNESS PROJECT.

Say ‘cheese’

To the editor:

Having read Richard Pratt’s Tuesday letter on traffic cameras, I feel the need to comment. Mr. Pratt’s comment that Review-Journal Publisher Sherman Frederick supports traffic cameras because he does not like “people passing him on his way to work” conveniently misses the point.

I, along with most law-abiding drivers don’t mind people passing me while driving. What I and many other drivers do have a problem with, however, are the drivers who put other people’s lives at risk by driving like they are in a NASCAR race.

There is really no point to list all the tricks of the trade idiots employ daily on our roadways. We are all aware of them.

As far as Mr. Pratt’s comment that traffic cameras are a tax-and-spend fix, there will be absolutely no need to raise any tax at all to install and operate these cameras. With the never-ending supply of waterheads behind the wheel in the Las Vegas area, the huge amounts of money raised by the tickets that will be issued will more than cover operating expenses.

The tone of Mr. Pratt’s letter suggests to me that he may well be one of the first to contribute. The bottom line is that if you wild drivers out there don’t wise up and start policing yourselves, law enforcement will, and these cameras will become a reality. Say “cheese.”

Jim Newton

BOULDER CITY