The debate over health care reform has entered an unreal world where facts can always be shouted down. Several letter writers have said they don't want the government choosing their doctor, but do we have a right to choose our own doctors? When I went to work for the City of Fort Lauderdale years ago, I was given a list of doctors I was allowed to go to if injured on the job. More recently, I worked for an international conglomerate. My health benefits could indirectly be set by a board of directors that met in another hemisphere, whose minutes are circulated in an ideographic language. Actually, that company gave me a free annual checkup, one of the best benefits I've ever had. My employer chose the doctor, of course. On a temporary job, I once collapsed while wearing a maladjusted gas mask. I was taken to a doctor chosen by the employer. A nurse put a thermometer in my mouth and said that I had a temperature of 120 degrees. A few minutes later they figured out that their newfangled electric thermometer wasn't working. ...more

November 2, 2009

I read the letters where the Constitution is used to make ones personal point, bent to fit their views. It is a good document in which our government should be run, but too many years have passed for it to now be absolute. If we want to go back to that time in history then we must remember that many of the writers owned slaves. There were indebted persons and a poor house in which to be jailed. Women of the time were only good to have children and keep the house. The writers could not have foreseen all the advances that have been made in our country; if they could some of the text might have been written differently. ...more

November 1, 2009

It has become obvious to all that the "free market" is not free for people who need health care. It is free for insurance companies to gouge, control and manipulate the users so that the companies don't have to pay and are assured a profit. This system is not working for the American people. I could list problems such as: ...more

October 25, 2009

The man was an alcoholic with no money, and he had a blood clot in his leg that could have killed him. ...more

April 1, 2009

Samaritan's Touch Care Center held its first annual fundraising dinner last Saturday night. The primary and specialized care clinic provides free medical care to area families who have no medical insurance of any kind, including Medicare and Medicaid, and whose income is at or below 200 percent of federal poverty guidelines. ...more

March 31, 2009

Recently a major metropolitan newspaper asked its readers how they would "fix" the American economy. Responses ran the gamut from serious to silly and everything in between. In one of the more intriguing suggestions, a reader wrote: ...more

March 29, 2009

Connie M. Perdue of New Port Richey says she is tired of hearing about the health care insurance problem. We don't need socialized medicine. ...more

March 28, 2009

The furnishing of health care as a collateral benefit of one's employment is largely a matter of historical accident rather than logical choice. Early in the development of the organized labor movement in the U.S. medical insurance was advanced as a benefit for employees. Initially, management found this a less expensive alternative than an outright wage increase since it was a contingent rather than absolute expense and could be covered by an insurance plan. Over the years this concept became generally accepted in U.S. employment contracts. Our current economic difficulties, with large numbers of the work force losing their jobs and as a consequence their health insurance demonstrates the illogic of this arrangement. Also, the cost of the insurance makes U.S. companies less competitive in the world market and is a factor in moving business offshore. ...more

March 22, 2009

The first opinion column, published under this scribbler's name, ran in a Georgia paper about 35 years back. It was a commentary countering a continually popular, liberal-belief that large segments of the population need government financial assistance to merely exist. ...more

March 21, 2009

This is in reference to the story that ran Sunday in Highlands Today regarding the Highlands County school budget. I disagree with this teacher, Roberta Peck. Teachers work very hard for their salaries and they deserve every penny they have earned. ...more

March 11, 2009