Business Letters
Re: David Lazarus’ consumer column “Blue Shield loses its patience,” Dec. 16:
The behavior of Blue Shield provides us with a clear reminder of why a “public option” is imperative in the healthcare reform legislation:
* To increase competition for insurers, who have for too long been able to dictate to consumers.
* To control the premiums charged to consumers.
* To help ensure that the majority of our nation’s population can be provided with coverage, knowing that it will not be taken away at the whim of the insurer.
Hopefully the legislators will realize that they work for us and not the powerful groups that are more interested in profits than providing quality healthcare coverage at a fair and affordable cost.
Karl Strandberg
Long Beach
TARP’s a success, don’t you know?
Re: Michael Hiltzik’s business column “Should banks get to exit TARP?” Dec. 14:
Michael Hiltzik saw the tree but missed the forest. The point of TARP was to rescue our entire banking industry and economy. It wasn’t supposed to be a profit-making venture. It wasn’t perfect, but it worked.
In fact it worked so well that the borrowers are paying it back. That’s a far more successful outcome than anyone projected. No government or, for that matter, private program is perfect. But this pretty much did what it was designed to do.
Marvin L. Sobel
Beverly Hills
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Hiltzik feels the American public is being “shortchanged” by the exit of financial institutions from more intrusive government control due to their repayment of TARP loans.
Hiltzik thinks the Obama administration should simply change the contract by fiat, maintain a stake in the big financial firms and run them according to some left-wing “social justice” criteria. What grounds does the government possibly have to prevent the firms from paying back their loans?
Lou Bricano
Pasadena
If cable’s hurting, what’s the deal?
Re: “Comcast launches online TV service,” Dec. 16:
Cable subscribers have always been told that cable service providers are all struggling financially, and they are forced to increase subscriber fees to satisfy the increasing greed of their content suppliers.
If Comcast were truly struggling to survive, how did they amass the $30 billion they used to buy NBC Universal?
Clearly, Comcast has been making a killing, lying to subscribers and blaming program suppliers for years. When will the public finally wise up to being ripped off by cable companies?
Jim Clark
Torrance
Half measures not the healthiest
Re: David Lazarus’ consumer column “Senate plan has support from the trenches,” Dec. 13:
Lazarus has not only missed the boat, but he is in deep water and we are all sinking. Nothing less than Medicare-for-all will give us the comprehensive, affordable healthcare that is the standard of the civilized Western world.
Dwelling on details of an expanded system using market forces to control prices is the great myth of healthcare in a capitalist society. Experience shows there is no free market. Price controls by the government are essential to protect the public from exorbitant charges.
Any government-sponsored plan will reimburse the physician below Medicare rates. Since enactment of the Medicare Balanced Budget Act of 1997, physician reimbursements have decreased by 50%.
Concluding his column “After all, this is the season of miracles” is naive. We deserve more than a miracle. Bring back to the table the corporate profits and administrative waste that have produced the healthcare Armageddon. We deserve Medicare-for-all.
Jerome P. Helman, M.D.
Venice
Exploiting shale a dirty business
Re: “Exxon puts hefty bet on natural gas,” Dec. 15:
The extraction of natural gas from shale is neither economically nor environmentally desirable. Methane contamination of drinking water and irreversible groundwater pollution are inevitable byproducts of the techniques used to extract natural gas from shale.
Perhaps you could revisit the issue and provide more of a balanced picture of this very controversial issue.
Stephanie Zill
Los Angeles
Network should precede gimme
Re: “AT&T may penalize iPhone users who use excessive data,” Dec. 10:
AT&T should quit whining and stop looking for ways to overcharge customers.
I bought an original iPhone and since have had a 3G and now a 3GS. At first the data plan was $20 a month and included 200 text messages. Upon arrival of the 3G, the fee went to $30 for 3G-capable phones with no texting included.
I have yet to have 3G service in my hometown. There are millions of us who are being charged for something we don’t have and the service is lousy -- dropped calls, no-service areas and no 3G service promised even in the distant future. So finish your network before you open your greedy hand, AT&T.
Bill Hancock
Cordele, GA
First count your pennies, then buy
Re: “Being frugal is back in fashion,” Dec. 13:
Quality of life is not just a medical term concerning one’s physical health and capabilities; it’s also a measure of peace of mind when it comes to how we conduct our financial dealings.
A message for life learned from growing up during the Great Depression was no matter how great the desire, you could not have it unless you could pay for it -- now.
Sid Skolnik
West Hollywood
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