"Our lawmakers just did not care what the new mandates did to people like me."

Take care of yourself

The nurse's edification: Are you able to get into a sitting position?

Editor, The Times:

Regarding "Hospitals, heal thyselves" [Times editorial, March 19]: I completely agree that a few basic acts of hand-washing or use of antiseptic gel can prevent a number of infections, especially in central line IVs. There is another step which, if taken in Olympia, can reduce it even further: Make more seats available to prospective nurses at the university and community-college level.

When there are five patients to one registered nurse, there is little room for the time and attention needed to ensure that a central line is properly cared for. Instead of forcing prospective nurses to retake classes over and over again to gain admittance, creating more seats will result in more nurses to properly staff area hospitals, therefore reducing hospital-acquired infections.

How do I know this? I have had to retake and take classes to find just one seat so I can become a registered nurse. I am certain there are others like me who want to work as RNs but can't because they miss the admission level by just a few points.

— Linda Hatfield-Southern (licensed practical nurse), Chehalis

A neglected growth

I was disappointed with "World turns a corner on TB" [News, March 23]. The headline suggests TB is no longer a problem and we are well on the way to solving it. Granted, buried at the end of the article is the note, "Current funding levels are not high enough ... " to meet the requirements set by the Global Plan to Stop TB.

Given that the latest version of drug-resistant TB (Extremely Drug Resistant TB-XDR TB) is considered to be untreatable, according to the Centers for Disease Control, I would think we were in serious danger. You admit that 1.6 million people died of TB last year. More people die of TB in about half an hour, every day, than have died from avian flu since its discovery.

And yet, Congress has included more than $1 billion to fund a "potential" fight against avian flu, but nothing to fight TB, in the Iraq funding bill.

That fact is important for your readers to know.

— Bob Dickerson, Seattle

Demons cast out

Kudos to the state Legislature, the governor, the Washington State Psychiatric Association, and especially to former King County Executive Randy Revelle and his associates! ["Senate OKs expanded coverage for mental disorders," Local News, March 24.]

Mental-health insurance has come out of the Dark Ages in Washington state, with the passage of the latest mental-health-parity bill. This important bill assures that many more people will have mental-health-insurance coverage with benefits equal to their coverage for physical-health problems.

Isn't it wonderful that we now consider disorders of the brain and mind to be equally important to those of the heart, lungs, etc.

I don't know why we have accepted inferior insurance coverage for mental-health problems for so many years.

— James Jones, M.D., Seattle

Susceptible to everything

Thank you for editorial columnist Lance Dickie's incisive "Winds of change carrying cries for health care toward the Hill" [editorial column, March 23].

As one who pays for her own health insurance — after taxes, no drug coverage, no routine-care coverage, $1,500 deductible — I dearly wish lawmakers would address this. But powerful interest groups — insurance companies, public employee unions and special provider groups like holistic caregivers — really can and do slam the brakes on this.

We are spending $200 billion a year right now in our tax expenditures for employer-provided benefits on which employees do not pay taxes, no matter how high their income. This is a powerful incentive for those who benefit from this and they do have friends.

For example, I just cannot imagine Democrats telling highly compensated public employees that they cannot have free or nearly free health benefits.

And, I have real trouble believing that Republicans are going to re-evaluate their terrible faith in the "free market" and insurance companies.

My individual plan is required to cover massage therapy and acupuncture! When our lawmakers mandated holistic coverage, my insurance rates immediately increased by 28 percent and I could no longer afford the good insurance I then had. (Our state lawmakers did not pass this rate increase on to state employees. They instead found the money by reducing adult enrollment in the Basic Health Plan.)

As a breast cancer survivor, I worry that a recurrence would bankrupt me because of this.

Our lawmakers just did not care what the new mandates did to people like me. They were too busy meeting and taking money from holistic providers and public-union reps who wanted the expanded coverage and who did not have to pay for it.

In fact, I have concluded that our state lawmakers simply don't give a damn about people like me.

I just don't see anything but small fixes on this, because a big fix would require some sacrifices from people long accustomed to a "free lunch."

— Sue Robinson, Camano Island

The shared mind

The King County Board of Health appreciates editorial columnist Lynne Varner's "A down payment on public health" [editorial column, March 14], about new and necessary funding for public-health services and the better health of our community's residents.

We do, however, want to prevent a misperception that may have been created by her statement that additional funding for public health will be met with backlash from the Republican Party.

Earlier this month, with a vote of 95-0, the state House demonstrated that supporting public health is a bipartisan issue. Public health is in everyone's interest and is not a "special interest," as stated by Varner. The bill the House supported, SHB 1825, is now moving on to the Senate for its consideration.

We also disagree with Varner's characterization that an investment of $100 million will take a "Pac-Man-sized bite out of the budget." The real bite comes from a public-health system suffering under the weight of increased and unmet demands, and a funding gap of more than $600 million each biennium.

The real bite also comes from a public whose basic preventive health-care needs are not met, leading to expensive emergency-room visits and chronic disease.

As a sensible first step, $100 million is an essential investment in one of the public's most essential and effective services.

We thank Varner for her interest in public-health funding, and continue to welcome the Legislature's bipartisan support for healthy communities.

— Julia Patterson, chair, King County Board of Health; King County Council member, D-SeaTac

The dummy books

Accounting for wiseguys

"Fraud charges at Metropolitan Mortgage & Securities settled" [Business & Technology, March 16] says that the accused "were permanently barred from violating securities-fraud laws." Does this mean they can continue working as accountants as long as they don't violate securities-fraud laws?

Also, does this mean that accountants who are not convicted can violate securities-fraud laws?

— Bev Marshall, Bellevue