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Open Forum Someone's paying for the shots
I just read an article in the Dispatch that said when they charged for flu shots, vs. giving them away, people were reluctant to participate in the program. Now I know there are people who can't afford even the $12 to $25 fee that has been proposed, and in many cases it will be waived, if you can prove you don't have the means to pay, but that's not the whole story and here is the rest of the story.
Our government has long fostered a mindset in people that says when they sponsor something or give you something it is free to all. No one has to pay for it. GlaxoSmithKline does not give that vaccine to the government. The government only helps distribute it. Someone has to pay for it. Now, guess where the government gets their money. Slowly, but surely, we have become more dependent on government to take care of us and they have responded. They have responded so well, that many now just expect it. It didn't used to be that way. If you're older than 60 you know it didn't. If you're younger than 60 take my word for it. Our government is broke my friends and this whole give-away and entitlement program thing is going to come crashing down amongst us, and a lot of people are not going to have a clue, how to take care of themselves. Then you will be able to blame the government if it helps. What was that parable about giving a man a fish and he eats for a day, or teaching him to fish and he eats for the rest of his life?
Mike Holst
Crosslake
Too much like an assembly line
I am skeptical about the new hospital program. Do the patients get to choose the hospitalist? One reason I like having my own insurance is that I want to choose my own physician. I feel like certain aspects of health care is getting to be more like factory assembly line care.
Martha Youngblood
Garrison
The 'Obama phones'
I'm amazed that the writer of the Obama phone letter didn't do his homework nor did the Brainerd Dispatch.
If one goes to snopes.com and searches (www.snopes.com/politics/taxes/cellphone.asp) they will find that the Obama phones originated during the Bush years and that they are mostly subsidized and not free. A few people do get free Trac phones. For some reason Congress decided (pre-Obama) that all people should be able to call their friends, relatives or dial 911 regardless of income! Obama phone? Not really.
Tim DeJonghe
Garrison
The cost of health care
Democrats in Congress are working to improve the health care of those hardest hit by job losses, force the insurance companies to quit yanking coverage from millions of people who develop diseases, denying care to nearly anyone with any existing health issues and reducing the obscene salaries of top health insurance executives. At the same time, Republicans in Congress have presented nothing to benefit anyone who needs quality health care. They have no plan, no alternatives, no ideas and basically are refusing to consider the well-being of any of their constituents in order to maintain the flow of money into their campaign coffers.
Never mind that 44,000 people die each year because they have no health care. Don't allow any competition from any type of public plan against some of their biggest campaign contributors, those same insurance companies that don't do anything to improve the health of even one patient, but suck the money out of all our pockets to keep their executives living in the style they've grown accustomed to. The insurance companies process claims. That's all. Twenty-four million dollars in salary to process the paper work of the health care system.
Let's not forget the money spent by the health care industry to advertise and run all the ads that are meant to terrorize seniors and the rest of the covered people into fearing their care will be affected by fixing the trouble in the system as it stands. I would probably do everything I could to protect my sugar daddy that pays for my mansions and other high buck perks if I had their jobs, but letting people die so I could spend my blood money, I hope would make me stop and think. The loss of family and friends because of this is intolerable.
Jim Grimes
Crosby
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