JOPLIN, Mo. —
So, we have a health care bill. That does not mean the unemployed who are uninsured or the underemployed who are uninsured can now afford insurance.
And if they cannot afford the insurance, then they surely will not be able to afford the “fine” (tax) that follows. Since we seem to be moving toward socialistic medicine, maybe the next step is what socialistic countries used to do when the citizens could not pay their debts: lock them up in prison until the debt was paid and/or ship them over to a penal colony (England clearing their prisons to Australia).
Here is an example: A woman who is 62 years old, uninsurable for the past 20 years because of melanoma, breast lumps and other ailments when she was in her 30s. She cannot afford high deductible policies (if one was even offered). She and her employed husband earn less than $12,000 per year, which includes $158 per month Social Security for her and $316 Social Security for him.
Here is another factor: In the state of Missouri, women 55 to 65 who are uninsured have no safety net for health care.
Where is a fair system that allows for preventative medicine for the uninsured and underemployed? This uninsured woman of 62 (my bride of 43 years) has no means or way of getting a recommended mammogram because the system has shut her out.
Yes, I think there should be some government help for uninsured citizens with some encouragement for affordable health care insurance, but this bill does not show it will do so.
Oh, me? I am a Vietnam combat veteran. I am receiving full free medical care from the Veterans Administration. But what is life without your soul mate to share it with?
Tobey Huff
Joplin
Opinion
Your View: Can’t afford it
- Opinion
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Our View: Spying on us
Distrust of government secrecy has been elevated to an exceptional level with the disclosure the Justice Department covertly examined two months of Associated Press phone records to determine who leaked details to the AP about a foiled terrorist plot.
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Our View: Pass on the legacy
Forty hungry members of the 1st Kansas Colored Volunteer Infantry began gathering corn at the Rader farm near the village of Sherwood when they were ambushed by a guerrilla band of about 70 Southern sympathizers.
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Our View: Big Brother looms large
The federal government, working under the cloak of secrecy, has been having a heyday at the expense of all Americans.
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Our View: Disgraceful military assault
We want to make one thing clear: A sexual assault is not a sex scandal. Nor can the rise in sexual assaults in the military be justified in any way.
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Elliott Denniston, guest columnist: Right-to-work laws only hurt workers
Middle-class workers have been fighting an uphill battle for the past 30 years.
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Your View: Food drive efforts
Branch No. 366 of the National Association of Letter Carriers along with the National Rural Letter Carriers Association, the American Postal Workers Union and the U.S. Postal Service would like to thank all the area communities that participated in the 2013 Stamp Out Hunger food drive.
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Your View: More about tax credit
The Globe’s editorial in “Our View” (May 10) may have left readers with a few inaccurate impressions.
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Other Views: Sickening disparity
Don’t feel bad if you don’t understand the wide, sometimes huge, discrepancies in fees hospitals charge for the same procedure. Or if you don’t understand the arithmetical magic the hospitals use to arrive at those fees.
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Carol Stark: America in need of more 'momisms'
Several years ago, I attended a writing workshop where one of the sessions was called “Tell it to Mom.”
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Our View: Keep learning
Donna Maus, a biology teacher from St. Mary’s Colgan High School in Pittsburg, Kan., told a group of top students, their parents and their teachers something we think everyone needs to hear.
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