Security and healthcare for all

Re “Public sector reels at retiree healthcare tab,” June 10

Concerns about the cost of healthcare for retired public employees are actually just a piece of two larger problems: healthcare costs for all employees and the collapse of the pension system for private sector employees. Do those who criticize the costs of public pensions and healthcare want to take people who’ve worked for 30 years, whose final salary is maybe $80,000, who may have a $60,000 annual pension, and have them pay $2,000 a month for private healthcare coverage, thus sending them back into the workforce?

The real issue is the private sector’s destruction of a retirement system that had achieved the lowest poverty rates for the elderly in the history of the United States.

CHRISTOPHER NEWFIELD

Santa Barbara

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Your article suffers from an overly narrow focus. It seems to promote the idea that if I don’t have any health benefits, those lousy government workers and retirees should not get them either. Rather than pursuing this approach, Times readers deserve more public-spirited coverage. Here are two suggestions: Aggressively pressure presidential candidates to put forth real solutions for providing health insurance for all, and follow up on Sunday’s report in the Business section about bloated CEO compensation. What kind of taxes are these people paying on the money they’re making off our backs, and how does that compare with taxes that the super rich have paid during the past 40 to 50 years?

JOE WAINIO

San Diego

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I’ve been to a doctor once in the last 40 years. I simply cannot afford it. When all is said and done, the cost for a thorough exam is more than $1,000. I work full time as a musician and part time as an educator. Do I not deserve healthcare?

THOMAS TEDESCO

Los Angeles

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Re “Contrasts can stir resentment,” June 10

Is it significant that the only person citing “envy” of retired public employees for having pensions and healthcare is a retired Republican legislator? Need one be paranoid to hear in former Assemblyman Keith Richman’s war on pensions echoes of the call to topple Social Security so proudly trumpeted by rich, right-wing radio blowhards?

If the existence of a vestige of an American middle class spurs “resentment,” as your headline claims, wouldn’t it make sense to restore retirement security and healthcare to all? Oh, how silly of me. We might have to bring back the estate tax. Never mind.

MICHAEL JELF

Lomita