Letters
Letters to the editor
Highlands Today
Published: July 9, 2012
Pay their own wayPublished: July 9, 2012
Hi, my name is Bob. Two years ago I passed out at work. My employer called for an ambulance. After the doctor checked me out, I was told I had gone into diabetic shock. Something else you should know about me, I am a 25-year-old male who stands 5 feet and 8 inches tall and weighs 305 pounds. I was told I need diabetic medication. I got my diabetic medication at the hospital.
So before my diabetic medication runs out I go to another hospital and get more diabetic medication. I do this because I do not have health insurance, although my income is high enough for me to buy health insurance I choose not to buy. I know the hospital will pass my bill onto the insurance companies, who will pass this cost onto those who have health insurance by raising their premiums.
Now that the government has this new health law, it will mean I have to buy my own health insurances or pay a fine through my income tax. I can no longer get free health care. I earn enough money to buy health insurance so I cannot get Medicaid or subsidies to help pay for my health insurance. I know there are other people who make more money than me. They can afford higher premiums so I can have free health care.
I do not like this new law! I liked how things were before this law. I got free health care and other people paid for it for me. Please repeal this law so I and many others can once again get free health care.
Disclaimer: The writer is not a Bob or a Betty, but our health care costs go up because of them. They need to pay their own way.
Joseph Alviano
Sebring
Business and politics
A businessman as politician is no guarantee of success in matter of a state. Thanks to Rick Scott, we get the message.
According to the Florida Center for Investigative Reporting (or "The Center"), a nonprofit news organization, in his brief one-and-a-half-year tenure in office, Scott and his Republican-dominated legislature have "aggressively advanced a series of laws and executive orders that have challenged the boundaries of accepted constitutional protections."
Although the courts have challenged these, lawyers for the state have either appealed or threatened to appeal them. And not only the courts, but the American Civil Liberties Union, physical and medical associations and civic groups have joined the fight.
Fletcher Baldwin, a constitutional law scholar at the University of Florida who has monitored such legislation stated: "I'd say we're number one in anti-civil rights legislation." Florida's attempts to rewrite protections guaranteed citizens by the Constitution have resulted in numerous lawsuits.
The Center states: "If these lawsuits are ruled against Florida by the appellate courts, the state, i.e., taxpayer, could lose millions in addition to what we've already paid."
Scott's latest antic — ushered in at the 11th hour — is to purge rolls of unqualified voters. Nothing wrong with that, except rushing this process could deny all qualified voters their right to vote, thereby violating Federal Voting Rights, one of the cornerstones of our democracy. In fact, it is illegal to purge voter rolls within 90 days of an election.
The supervisors in Florida have unanimously refused to do this. This latest antic of Scott's has once again put Florida, according to a recent commentator, on the cutting edge of voter suppression. Remember hanging chads?
Now, along comes another businessman who feels qualified to head the ship of state: Mitt Romney. Got the message?
Dave McCarthy
Sebring
Political cartoons
We look forward to, and appreciate, the political cartoons by Gabe Clogston on Sunday mornings. Not only is Mr. Clogston very talented as far as his drawings go, but he "hits it out of the park" on the subject matter. It is obvious a great deal of thought and feelings go into his work.
Niel and Carole Muir
Sebring