Letters on health compact, Cal Thomas, Senate ballot
More wrecks on the state ‘road map’
It appears there might be more wrecks soon on the “road map.” For-profit KanCare insurance companies are taking huge losses – more than $100 million (Sept. 12 Now Consider This). No wonder they are delaying payments to both rural and urban hospitals and cutting services to the disabled.
I have spoken with a person who works with the disabled on a daily basis and says what is happening is a nightmare. They can’t get the things done that some disabled patients need within the hours allotted.
We all know what happens when you have too many claims on your homeowner’s policy – you are canceled like a hot potato. So how long do you think these for-profit insurance companies are going to put up with these huge losses? Not long. What then?
Some state lawmakers including House Speaker Ray Merrick, R-Stilwell, recently threatened the Johnson County Commission on Aging with some kind of retribution if it publishes an article about the state plan to take over Medicare (Sept. 19 Now Consider This). Why? Lawmakers know it will hurt them in November, and it should. This possible takeover puts more stress on the retired who worry about what may happen to their health care, especially if it is run like KanCare.
Keep that in mind in November and get rid of the bullies.
DAVE ZELE
Wichita
More of same
It’s a shame that The Eagle prints Cal Thomas’ opinions every Wednesday. Thomas has something cogent to say once or twice a year. The balance of his opinions are either self-righteous or strongly partisan, and tend to be circular.
Thomas’ rant about Hillary Clinton hit all the usual buttons (Sept. 17 Opinion). In the partisan category, Thomas doesn’t like the use of the word “progressive” to describe Clinton; he informed us that liberals “hide behind” that label. So she must be too sneaky to admit to being a liberal.
In the self-righteous category, he finds that Clinton has a “warmth and accessibility” problem, so she is too hard and without the “milk of human kindness.” She is mean.
Back to the partisan mode, Thomas attacked her for not fixing relations with Russia, creating peace in the Middle East and, of course, for the Benghazi debacle. It matters not a whit to Thomas that we have never adequately fixed Russian/Soviet relations, created Middle East peace or adequately prevented the deaths of Americans in dangerous foreign assignments.
Thomas concluded that she is too soft to make the hard decisions in the “3 a.m. phone call” scenario, and, partisan again, knows that a “strong Republican candidate” would be best at making life-and-death decisions in the predawn.
Thomas has argued that Clinton is too soft and too hard and failed to solve world problems that no one has managed to solve. Then he has boosted a “strong Republican” (should such emerge), because somehow that partisan tag would mean everything. I’m wrong; Thomas is not circular, he’s all over the map.
DAVE CROOK
Derby
Taken off ballot
Hooray for the Kansas Supreme Court (Sept. 19 Eagle). I want to thank the Kansas Supreme Court for taking a Democrat off the ballot, even before the vote. Keep up the good work.
TERRY FOX
Wichita
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This story was originally published September 23, 2014 at 7:07 PM with the headline "Letters on health compact, Cal Thomas, Senate ballot."