Obamacare will be a disaster
I was amazed that your Tuesday editorial, “GOP should resist Obamacare hold up,” avoids all discussion of the Affordable Care Act’s serious deficiencies and the obvious fact President Obama is the one illegally holding up implementation of the employer mandate. Although your editorial was very lengthy, much of it was spent rehashing the last presidential election. You glossed over the serious problems with the Massachusetts law, such as a severe shortage of primary care physicians leading to increased use of hospital emergency rooms for nonemergency care. You also avoided mentioning the serious faults in Obamacare and the impossible task Democrats are facing in trying to get this monstrosity to work. While President Obama did not give a reason for delaying implementation, it is obvious that he wanted to delay until after the 2014 Congressional elections to avoid Democratic candidates facing public ire over implementation of an unpopular law.
The Affordable Care Act did not give President Obama the authority to delay implementation, but the president does not feel constrained by the rule of law. The president has also directed the executive branch to not obey several Affordable Care Act provisions such as the part-time employee exemption and the fining of individuals who do not purchase insurance. The act exempts employees who work less than 30 hours a week, but the Department of Health and Human Services has warned employers that 30 hours per week could actually mean 28 or 29 hours a week. Also, the law does not allow the IRS to fine individuals who do not purchase health insurance if their state, like Pennsylvania, does not set up a health insurance exchange. President Obama said they will not permit that to happen and everyone will be fined regardless of the law’s provisions.
Your editorial blamed the Republicans for wasting $50 million in taxpayer dollars. That seems rather insignificant to the $10 billion less in penalty payments the government will not collect because of the president’s decision to delay the mandate that requires large employers to offer health coverage according to a Congressional Budget Office study.
Congressional Republicans are taking the responsible road in trying to repeal Obamacare. If you know that this law will be disastrous for the country and its citizens, it would be irresponsible to allow it to be implemented. Obamacare was ill-conceived, restricts access to health care, and will not lower health care costs.
Democratic Sen. Max Baucus, one of the Obamacare authors, said he fears a “train wreck” as the administration implements its signature health care law. I could not have said it better.
Stephen Davis
Eighty Four
I wonder if the attorney for Robert Ferrante, the University of Pittsburgh researcher accused of providing his wife, Autumn Klein, with a lethal dose of cyanide realizes how ludicrous is his outrage over the manner in which his client was apprehended.
Counsel expressed contempt for the strong police presence to nab the accused murderer, asserting that it was a colossal waste of money. The amount of money expended to arrest the suspect will pale in comparison to the millions that are spent to try him and to imprison him for the rest of his life should he be convicted. I am thankful that police in the state of West Virginia took the matter of the murder of an innocent person seriously enough to provide a strong police presence to assure the easy and efficient capture of the defendant.
Another irony in the case is that Ferrante took action to express his supposed love and concern for the couple’s daughter, including arranging his estate to ensure that she will derive significant benefit. If he committed this crime, he will have caused the daughter that he purports to love to become an orphan for all intents and purposes, an odd way to express affection.
Further worthy of note are the bizarre, incriminating actions of the alleged killer, having allegedly apprised a co-worker of his need for cyanide to be delivered overnight, speaking of his wife in the past tense at the hospital after her collapse, and declining to attend her memorial service.
It would appear that the despicable tenet of “If I can’t have her, nobody will” extends beyond rural gun fanatics and into the world of distinguished scientists, who use more high-tech means to kill.
Oren Spiegler
Upper St. Clair
It goes without saying that no one wants to talk about or mention the “s” word, suicide. Even when it has happened to a person they know, people never discuss it. We know this for a fact, because we lost sons to suicide.
Throughout the world, suicide is the leading cause of death for people aged 15 to 49. No one discusses it, churches never say a word and when there are fundraisers for suicide prevention, you never see a TV camera there. Why can’t we put it in obituaries as the cause of death? Because we might ruffle some feathers? Well, we say, start ruffling.
There are organizations out there to get help. Let’s all stand up and talk about suicide. Talk and keep talking.
Bonnie Celestine
Buckhannon, W.Va.
Bobbie McHenry
Sycamore