Eugene weekly., July 19, 2012, Page 5, Image 5

letters
TO THE EDITOR
world,” are too corrosive for baby oysters
to survive. They deny the 97 percent of
climate scientists who concur that humans
are a signifi cant contributing factor to
global climate change. They deny the Koch
brothers-funded study that agreed with
the scientists. They even deny the CEO of
Exxon, Rex Tillerson, who told stockholders
that man-made global warming is real and
caused by burning fossil fuels.
The harsh reality is that man is changing
the climate of the Earth. Covering your
eyes and ears and speaking evil of those
who don’t deny reality won’t make the
truth go away, no matter how inconvenient
it is. Extinction is forever.
That’s the harsh reality.
Michael T. Hinojosa
Drain
ATTACK ON BASIC RIGHTS
Workers’ rights are human rights!
Despite the rhetoric from Wisconsin Gov.
Scott Walker and the Republicans, their
attack on the teachers and other state
workers is not a sign of strong leadership.
It is an attack on basic human rights of
the working people of Wisconsin. Article
23 of the Universal Declaration of Human
Rights, signed by U.S. and most of the
countries in the world, states, “Everyone
has the right to form and to join trade
unions for the protection of his interests.”
Taking away the collective bargaining
rights of workers, who of their free will
formed an association in order to gain fair
pay, health care for their families, pensions
for their old age and decent working
conditions is a blow to every working
person in this country.
As a country that has supported human
rights struggles throughout the world our
credibility has been badly damaged. How can
we tell other countries to honor their citizens’
human rights when a governor of a state and
the Republican candidate for president have
carried out and endorsed a violation of a
basic human right here in America?
All workers, unionized or not, deserve
to be treated fairly in the workplace. And at
viewpoint
a time when money equals political power,
working people need a strong organization
that will promote their interests in the
political arena.
Pete Mandrapa
Eugene
LACK OF VISION
I’m truly unhappy about the sale of the
property and gift of millions in tax breaks
to Capstone. I think this decision was made
hastily, benefi ting outside developers. It
feels like the UO has been changing the
demography of our community through its
“needs.” My concern is that this will tip the
balance of in-town residents toward a larger
population of part-timers; ones who are less
invested in the image and long-term health
of the city’s core. It is now seemingly a done
deal, one for the history books to gauge, a
social experiment in the making.
I’m glad to have that piece of property
renewed but feel the choice of tenants
was “low-hanging fruit.” I am one who
believes that there needs to be more mixed
income housing for retiring seniors, now
downsizing and looking for sustainable
housing in town, year round.
I recently read that Ashland was in the
top 10 U.S. communities for retirees and
I’m sure that’s because there is a there
there. Albany is renovating its downtown
to support the wonderful new carousel and
the museum to house it. We have historic
opportunities to focus on along with
cultural organizations that are growing.
I know there are many reasons that our
growth has stumbled over the years; I
just wish we could get a “big picture” of
ourselves rather then growing by accident.
There must be some new juice in this town
to help us create some new vision.
How about a “vision box” at the
Eugene Celebration? Ask for concepts or
brands. I know how hard it is for Eugene to
come together on anything, but for this old
town hippy, hope springs eternal. My entry
is Somewhere Under the Rainbow.
Martha Snyder
Eugene
SALE
BY DR. SAMUEL METZ
A Giant Step
Backward
The ACA enshrines our dysfunctional system
T
he Affordable Care Act survived the Supreme Court, but we should not celebrate
yet. Congress designed the ACA to sell more health insurance policies, and it
will, but we should not mistake health insurance for health care.
If you can’t afford a policy and government cutbacks remove your subsidy,
your family doesn’t get health care. If you spent your last dollar on premiums with
no money left for deductibles, your family doesn’t get health care. If illness prevents
you from working and you lose coverage, your family doesn’t get health care.
The ACA will indeed succeed in selling more policies even with Supreme
Court modifi cations. However, it will not make policies less expensive, care more
affordable, or care more accessible.
The ACA is modeled directly upon Romney’s Massachusetts plan. What has
happened there since 2006? Over 95 percent of Massachusetts residents now
proudly own an insurance policy; however, health has not improved. Medically
related bankruptcies have not gone down. Lives lost to treatable diseases have
not decreased. And health care costs have continued to rise uncontrollably since
the law was enacted.
We can expect no different from the ACA. Instead, the ACA deepened the
dependence of healthy Americans on private insurance for access to health care.
Dr. Marcia Angell, former editor of the New England Journal of Medicine, refers
to the “tyranny of the healthy,” in which healthy, insured Americans fear any
change will remove what they believe is their only protection against medically
related fi nancial catastrophe. What healthy Americans don’t appreciate is most
personal bankruptcies are precipitated by medical crisis in families with health
insurance at the time the crisis began. Oregonians suffered 12,000 medically
related bankruptcies in 2009 affecting 34,000 family members. Most debts in
collection agencies are medically related. The ACA changes nothing.
The ACA is giant step backward for health care. First, it enshrines private
health insurance as the only way most Americans get health care. Next, it imposes
huge impediments on states like Oregon which want better care than the ACA can
provide. Any project must wait until 2017, long after spending millions of dollars
for exchanges. Even then, special waivers are required.
Every other industrialized nation provides better care to more people for less
money than we do. All use variants of publicly funded universal health care, many
of them single payer. If we need to radically alter health care to produce better
access for less money with better results, we should model ourselves on working
systems, not dysfunctional systems. The ACA expands the most dysfunctional
system in the world.
Reform advocates want Oregon to do better. We want health care access for
everyone. We want lower health care costs. We want our dollars to improve the
health of our families, not the health of insurance companies.
Please tell your state and U.S. representatives you want publicly funded,
cost-effective health care for every Oregonian. The ACA won’t do it. It’s up to us.
Samuel Metz, M.D., is a Portland anesthesiologist. He is a member of Mad As Hell Doctors and Physicians for
a National Health Program; both organizations advocate for single-payer health care. This commentary was
written for EW.
The Shedd Institute
www.theshedd.org - 541-434-7000
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EUGENE WEEKLY JULY 19, 2012
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