Feeling the Pain of Kaiser’s Pressure

I have read of Kaiser Permanente’s concern about people and health maintenance organizations [“Rising Costs Put Pressure on Kaiser,” Sept. 29]. If Kaiser is so concerned on a moralistic and humanistic level, how come it has discontinued service to me after 47 years of membership?

I realize that it’s not just me but 2,500 to 2,800 elder citizens in the Coachella Valley. I realize that Kaiser is a business just as any other HMO, but it sends me messages about all the new building and improvements it is doing and then accuses me of not being “cost effective.”

I moved to the Coachella Valley because Kaiser assured me that I would be covered. I realize that things change, but after continuous raises to meet its needs, I am now “cost ineffective”?

My whole medical history and associations have been with Kaiser. Not only is it a pretense for Kaiser to say it cares, but it is a shame. Surely something can be done to prevent such actions.

Eleanor Hirsch

Palm Desert

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If Kaiser is feeling the pressure of rising costs, imagine the pressure being felt by older members on very fixed incomes who need more care than younger members. In our youth-oriented society, one would think that at least in the matter of health care, age wouldn’t be held against a person.

The costs for special needs when older could be offset by all the years of not needing much care.

Kaiser has been a wonderful leader in how an HMO should work. But now its older members will be the payers. To younger members: Remember that you too will age.

Damiana Chavez

Los Angeles

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I expected better of Kaiser than this. The top management made a mistake. Now we old-time members will pay for the goof.

Gilbert Smith

Encino