Social Security and Medicare broke?

Nicholas Kristof’s “Health-reform foes buck historical tide” [Opinion, syndicated column, Nov. 20] tries to ignore the elephant in the room.

His claim that Social Security and Medicare “work” is true on some levels, but when one considers fiscal responsibility, they are failures.

They are both going broke.

Social Security can be described as a government-run Ponzi scheme; Medicare costs tens of times more than what the Democrats originally claimed. And so will the Democrat’s health-care plan. As Grandpa would say, “If you can’t pay for it, you have no business owning it.”

After praising Social Security and Medicare several times, Kristof managed to bring up cost once by stating there are problems in the House and Senate health-care bills, in particular they falter in cost containment.

This should be the major concern of voters.

Both parties have been kicking the can of national debt down the road for decades, but in this regard President Obama has outdone all the rest combined. And Sens. Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell are helping him do it, to the eventual ruin of us all.

— Ted Hannum, Bellevue

Underlying value system is the unaddressed issue

Who in his or her right mind would not join wholeheartedly in figuring out how to provide high-quality health care at reasonable cost to every citizen [“First key vote today on Senate health bill,” page one, Nov. 21]? How can a nation that prides itself on high moral standards allow people to make profits on the backs of people who are sick?

The fundamental problem is that all of us who have investments make money because people get sick. We, or investment managers on our behalf, press constantly for increased profits and stock value.

Shame on us.

I don’t want a socialist system that takes incentive for performance and accountability out of the equation. That argument is a ruse. There are many not-for-profit organizations in the U.S. that outperform for-profit corporations in effective use of resources.

The unaddressed issue is our underlying value system.

If we demand ever-increasing profits from our health-related companies, we will never lower the cost of health care in this country. We can only hope to rearrange the deck chairs and fight to out maneuver one another for the best seat.

It is time to start asking the real questions and to look in the mirror.

— Sam Magill, Edmonds

The health-insurance-reform bill

I wish people would stop referring to the bill going through Congress as a health-care bill [“Tight vote launches health care over hurdle,” page one, Nov. 22].

It has nothing to do with either doctors or hospitals, as far as I know. Doctors and hospitals provide health care, insurance does not.

Even Sen. Patty Murray’s Web site correctly refers to it as a health-insurance-reform bill.

I don’t think that health insurance will ever become more affordable unless we start confronting the people many Americans consider mini-gods: physicians and hospitals.

— Anita Legsdin, Seattle