Letters to the editor

May 4, 2008

Re "McCain backs open healthcare market," April 30

I have toyed with the notion of voting for John McCain. His independence, fair-mindedness and integrity have held a certain appeal. However, now that I have read about his proposal for healthcare reform, I have lost all interest. He demonstrates a total lack of understanding about the problem.

It's not choice we need to address. It's accessibility.

Health insurance in this country is profit-driven; therefore every insurance company has strong incentives to accept only healthy people. If you ended my job-based insurance, I would never find an insurance company willing to take me -- not for 10 times the $5,000 that McCain wants to offer.

McCain's solution would be murder on me, pure and simple.

Brad Currier

Northridge



McCain's tax credit proposal is the right prescription for our ailing healthcare system.

The rising number of employers who are shifting more of the cost to their employees or have terminated coverage tells us that the era of employer-based insurance is coming to an end.

Perhaps it may be more effective if everyone is required to purchase catastrophic health insurance from this credit, leaving the balance for purchasing additional coverage or for medical expenses.

A single-payer system appears attractive on the surface, but given the failing of such systems in other countries, it would likely lead us on a disastrous journey. Give the tax credit idea a chance.

John T. Chiu

Newport Beach

Management and labor

Re "Strike still felt by TV workers," April 28

Having recently moved here from Michigan, a state decimated economically and in a recession for the last several years, I read how the writer's strike has hurt the movie industry and, most important, the people who make a living in it.

The unions in Michigan are also hurting an entire industry and region as jobs move south to states that don't require union membership to work.

One day, the rest of America will wake up and realize that unions have outlived their usefulness (federal and state labor and wage laws now protect workers, unlike 80 years ago).

In a global economy, union wages and rules just don't cut it. When more and more movie industry jobs move to other states, maybe California will wake up and see the writing on the wall.







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