Friday, March 5, 2010

Absence of health care does economic damage

In [the Feb. 26] paper, a small column told us that Blue Cross was asking for a rate raise of between 11 and 14 percent in Florida for health policies for individuals and small businesses. This apparently is because of "soaring medical costs" because of unpaid medical bills by uninsured people in Florida that have "forced hospitals and other health care providers to shift costs to private health plans."

This is one of the points that the president of the United States made during [a] long day of discussion on health care reform. It should be clear by now that to leave millions of people uninsured and without access to health care except emergency rooms, will only damage the country, the economy and the United States' standing in the world.

As somebody born in the U.K. in 1942, the same year that Rab Butler and John Maynard Keynes began their discussions on a national health service (opposed at the time by Winston Churchill, by the way), I have been able to live most of my life receiving free medical care, raise two disabled children as a single mother, and follow a career as a writer.

If I had lived in the U.S., I would have been seriously broke by now. When I moved here, I knew I had to stay healthy, as I could not, as a freelance writer, afford health insurance. Now, I write this from the relatively safe shores of Medicare. Yes, state medicine, and thank God for it.

In February 1948 in the U.K., Aneurin Bevan urged ministers to "take pride in the fact that despite our financial and economic anxieties we are still able to do the most civilized thing in the world; put the welfare of the sick in front of every other consideration." In July of that year, the NHS was born.

Watching this country debate whether it wants universal health care or not is a bit like watching people argue about whether they want a paved road, or if they would prefer a dirt track, while allowing some people the use of helicopters.

Rosalind Brackenbury

Key West

Does name change indicate new direction?

How many people in the community know that AIDS Help Inc. has changed its name? It is true. Robert Walker, the executive director, insisted that the name be changed because of 1099 forms issued by the organization read AIDS Help Inc.

Seems to me those 1099s have read that way for over 20 years without any problems. Walker was instructed by the board of directors to take a survey and report back on who is being affected by having the 1099s read AIDS Help Inc. No survey was ever done. He returned to the board and had the name change approved.

The new name is A.H. of Monroe County Inc., or as he says, "Assisted (Affordable) Housing of Monroe County Inc." Walker also petitioned the board of directors to insert "housing" into the articles of incorporation.

Is the former AIDS Help Inc. moving in a direction other than its founding principles? More to come.

Ed Czaplicki

Founding board member

Key West

Obama's citizenship is a constitutional issue

It's as simple as this: Obama's father was never a U.S. citizen.

We know from several U.S. Supreme Court rulings that "all children born in the country of parents who were its citizens ..." make up the "natural born citizen" category. The Supreme Court says there have never been any doubts as to the status of these children. As to children born in the U.S. to parents who were not U.S. citizens at the time of their birth, there have been doubts. In other words, "natural born citizen" under this formulation requires two generations of U.S. citizens, one generation in the parents and the other in the child himself/herself, who also must be born on U.S. soil.

It is important to understand that we are focusing on what is a natural born citizen under Article II Section 1, Clause 5, which specifies the requirements to be president and not on what a citizen is under the 14th Amendment or under some congressional act that does not relate to Article II of our Constitution regarding natural born citizenship.

Obama, while having his mother's U.S. citizenship generation, is missing that of his father's, for his father was a British subject/citizen born in Kenya at the time of Obama's birth.

He therefore cannot be a natural born citizen, even if Obama was born in Hawaii.

Unless Obama is 200-plus years old, he is not constitutionally eligible to be president.

This is a constitutional issue, not a conspiracy theory.

C.B. Alyn

Key West