Mid Rivers Newsmagazine 5-3-17

6 I OPINION I
May 3, 2017
MID RIVERS NEWSMAGAZINE
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
@MIDRIVERSNEWS
MIDRIVERSNEWSMAGAZINE.COM
A true fan of Dennis Prager
To the Editor:
After the editorial column retirement of
Thomas Sowell late last year, I was curious
as to who you were going to publish in his
place.
Thankfully, you all have risen to the
occasion with the publication of many of
my favorite columnists in syndication. It’s
been great to see Dennis Prager’s smiling
face on page three; he’s been my favorite
radio talk-show host and columnist for
more than 15 years.
Up until recently, my only access to
Dennis had been through internet podcasts
via his flagship Los Angeles radio station
and his syndicated columns via a couple
of websites. I’m thankful that he can now
be heard – and read – in the St. Louis area.
Few people in this country can articulate
the issues with such moral clarity and
intellect than Mr. Prager. Thank you,
again, for sharing his views with the local
populace.
John Cannon
Not a fan of John Stossel
To the Editor:
Why do we have to listen to a full page of
John Stossel each week? He’s not a middle
of the road Libertarian. He is a guy who
wants everyone to sit on our hands and let
this country become the opposite that our
founders intended. We already have the St.
Louis Post-Dispatch for that opinion. Give
us editorial thinkers who want America to
be first again.
Carol Senn
Not a ponzi scheme
To the Editor:
I respectfully disagree with reader Jon
Schulte’s letter regarding health insurance
and the demise of Medicare.
Medicare is not a ponzi scheme;
Medicare will not go broke if we take a
rational approach.
I am a life long Conservative and have
been in the health insurance business for
over 40 years. The best way out of the
intolerable situation today is to embrace
single payer – Medicare for all if you
will – with some incentives such as health
savings accounts.
There is not now, and never will be, a
free market when it comes to healthcare
and health insurance. That is an illusion,
because providers and drug companies
[the later of which are robbing everyone
blind] are the supply and the demand. If
both supply and demand are in the same
corner, then costs will naturally rise.
The main problem with our system
is cost. Enbrel, which is a drug used to
reduce pain associated with arthritis and
is heavily advertised on television by PGA
player Phil Mickelson, is being taken by
millions of people. Do you know what
Enbrel costs? $4,500 per month. Forever.
So, we are spending $50,000 per year per
person taking Enbrel. Multiply that by
millions of people and you can see we
are headed for bankruptcy. And this is just
one example. There are hundreds of drugs
where the same sort of fleecing is going on.
Single payer is not, as some uninformed
conservatives think, “government-run
healthcare.” That is total fabrication.
Rather, under single payer, the federal
government sets reimbursement rates to all
providers. And that is all it is.
Getting a handle on costs is our main
problem. If we do not adopt single
payer soon, our nation most assuredly
will go bankrupt. In this respect, we are
beyond trying to cobble together some
sort of replacement system that will be
as ineffective and costly as our current
system. Single payer is a necessity, not a
choice.
William B. Hall
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