Letters to the Editor for Thursday, September 3, 2009

Health care rationing already a reality
I have listened for months to the health care debate in this country. I appreciate not only the complexity of the subject, but also the legitimate concerns, financial and social, expressed by both sides of the political aisle. However, I don’t appreciate or respect the opinion that any kind of public national health care policy can or should be pursued without health care rationing.

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I have worked in the health care field for the past 43 years, mostly in emergency care. I am familiar with not only what is technically possible, but also with the public’s expectation and desires. It has become more than obvious that just because something can be done, it doesn’t automatically correlate that it should be done.

In the following, I am referring only to what are society’s obligations to its members, not what an individual should or shouldn’t do using private resources. Should grandma at 90 get a new heart valve? Should a one-pound preemie be maintained for months in an intensive care unit with little prospect of a favorable outcome? Should a new drug that costs 10 times as much as an older one be used if the difference in outcome is marginal? Should vast medical resources be expended on individuals who, despite the opportunity to do so, refuse to accept personal responsibility for their own health? The difficulty of making these choices has no bearing on the necessity of making them, even when it affects us and our loved ones personally.

So, who will decide? What criteria will be used? What about the potential for abuse and manipulation? What about the “slippery slope”? These are all legitimate concerns. They are not legitimate reasons for not making a decision.

It seems to me equally as obvious that preventative health care should have a much higher claim on our public dollars as definitive health care. By preventative health care, I’m not referring to just immunizations and physical exams, I’m referring to public education in nutrition, parenting, lifestyle choices, physical fitness and birth control. I’m referring to significant taxation on those activities that we know are detrimental to our health, be it cigarettes, alcohol, fast foods or recreational drugs.

I am not suggesting that a person doesn’t have a “right” to make poor choices in life, or unrealistic medical decisions, I’m saying that society has not only a right, but an obligation not to be a facilitator.
CARL F. MILLER
Lynchburg

Welcome to all students
As I drive around Lynchburg, I can see plenty of businesses using their signs to welcome Liberty University students back to our city. I would like the students at Lynchburg College, Sweet Briar and Randolph to feel just as welcomed, even though it seems most of the local businesses seem to forget about extending a welcome to these other fine colleges.

So to all those businesses and even some churches, I might add, especially along Timberlake Road who only welcome certain students, shame on you for not recognizing all the rest. Welcome all.
RYAN LACY
Lynchburg