We must take back health care from insurers

Twenty-five years ago, when I started medical school, health care began undergoing some major changes due to the so-called crisis in health-care costs. Insurance companies took over much of the control of how health-care dollars would be spent as well as how patients would be managed.

Since then, there has continued to be a dramatic rise in health-care costs. I think it is safe to say, then, that this 20-plus-year "experiment" in controlling rising health-care costs by surrendering control of the industry to insurance companies has been a failure. In fact, this "plan" has accomplished little more than allowing the insurance industry to accumulate enormous wealth while causing a decline in the quality of health care delivered.

Since this plan has been a failure, I believe we should implement some changes, and I submit that we return control of health care to physicians and put much of the money back in patient care instead of into insurance company coffers.

I ask any physicians and health-care consumers in agreement to contact me so we may attempt to make the necessary changes. We need to work together as a community of health-care advocates.

STEPHEN J. LIEDERBACH, M.D.
Bridgeville

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Physician control

The obscene profits enjoyed by our health-care insurance providers demand that the interest of the consumers be reviewed and acknowledged. As eloquently pointed out in the Jan. 21 Forum pieces about Gov. Ed Rendell's proposal ("Rendell's Remedy"), single-payer coverage should be considered for all citizens of Pennsylvania.

We need health-care coverage in Pennsylvania that is not solely controlled by the insurance companies. We need coverage that will put our health care back in the hands of our doctors. We do not appreciate the insurance companies dictating, controlling, limiting and jeopardizing the quality of care of our citizens.

How many times have we heard about the control dictated by the insurance companies making the decisions only certified physicians and surgeons should make for ourselves and our loved ones?

MARIE MALAGRECA
O'Hara

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Healthy behavior

A reply to Andrea R. Fox and Jessica Seabury of the Consumer Health Coalition, who wrote one of the Jan. 21 Forum pieces about "Rendell's Remedy": Even in America, which has a penchant for irresponsibly wasting money collected from hapless citizens, the idea of funding the cost of providing hospitalization and picking up the tab for unlimited expenditures for drugs and other costly disposables for anyone who needs such services ranks right up there with the idea of militarily destabilizing an area of the world that can and will cost more money than we can mint to fix.

The obvious answer is keeping people healthy, rather than writing a blank check to doctors for their medical care. I have actually met and spoken with people who have eaten junk food three times a day for 20 years and are now shocked that they have a brain tumor. Should I be asked to pay a million dollars to attempt to fix that tumor? Absolutely not.

First, we must understand that there is no health-care system in America. There is sickness-care insurance, which is very expensive. But the point is that an option to sickness-care insurance is a healthy diet.

There is scientific proof that cheeseburgers cause heart disease, cancer, diabetes, inflammatory diseases and other diseases. So my advice to the public and Gov. Ed Rendell is to either stop eating cheeseburgers or get another job and buy your own sickness insurance.

JAMES McCARTNEY
McCandless

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Blight-busting idea

Regarding the Jan. 14 article about Saw Mill Run Boulevard ("A Blight for Sore Eyes"): For some time now, I have been thinking about a financial instrument that all property owners would be compelled by law to use. It would be some type of insurance. If an owner cannot sell, lease or otherwise develop a vacant property, then a claim could be filed by anyone -- except the owner. The insurance company would notify the owner of the claim, do its own investigation and then the owner would be given further time to either demolish or sell the property.

The result of a successful claim would be demolition of any buildings, leaving only tie-in points for water, sewer and electricity and relandscaping of the lot with grass at a minimum, but perhaps reforestation would be best.

The owner would be bought out by the claim proceeds at a value to be determined. The deed is then held by the insurance company. If the property is sold, proceeds are used to help control the cost of premiums.

Obviously there are many issues in law surrounding the implementation of such an idea. You only need to look at Saw Mill Run to see what the status quo produces.

JOSEPH BARRY
Ross

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Think nutrition

Hannah Lupien ("Fast, Cheap, Full of Fat," Jan. 7 Forum) draws attention to a serious dilemma for both poor families and food banks nationwide: how to provide healthy food with very limited resources.

The Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank takes the issue of nutrition very seriously. Our Farm Stand Program gives low-income neighborhoods access to fresh produce at reasonable cost. Our on-site nutrition education programs for children and adults, and all of our written materials, promote nutritious food choices with consistent, practical and positive healthy eating messages.

Our Choose Healthy Options Program, created in 2003, focuses on the procurement and distribution of the healthiest foods we can make available. The program also educates all those involved on how to identify and prepare healthy food. This program won America's Second Harvest Model Program award last year and is being shared with food banks across the country.

Currently, the percentage of healthy food distributed by the food bank runs between 65 and 70 percent of the total; we strive to increase this percentage every year. Our donors are of great help.

When you donate, please offer nutritious foods like tuna packed in water; canned fruit in juice; high-fiber, low-sugar cereals; and low-sodium canned vegetables and hearty soups. For details, contact the food bank at www.pittsburghfoodbank.org.

MIM SEIDEL
Dormont

The writer is chair, Food and Nutrition Committee, Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank.

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Pizza outrage

I have a grave problem with the Jan. 21 "On the Go" article "The Right Slice." After reading the PG's ratings of the best and worst frozen pizzas, I was outraged. My family's income depends on the commission from several of the brands sampled by these 14 pizza-eating professionals -- oh, I am sorry, a group of overeaters who have nothing better to do than spend two hours eating lunch.

First, as for the pizzas they gave such bad reviews, were those the last of the eating binge after the first taste of hunger wore off? Did they lack motivation to go out and find something positive for the community and its working class to read about?

Instead of writing columns about pizza good, pizza bad (caveman like), discuss the related points to eating frozen pizza and how many families buy and eat frozen pizza for dinner or lunch on a hectic day because it's quick, easy and already made.

JAMIE GIOVINALI
Washington, Pa.

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A smaller legislature isn't necessarily a better legislature

In his Jan. 21 column, Brian O'Neill attempts to make the case that Pennsylvania should reduce the number of state legislators ("A Good Cut Any Way You Slice It"). His reasoning: we should be like other big states. The question he doesn't answer is: why?

Of the states Mr. O'Neill lists as big states (all of which have more residents per lawmaker than Pennsylvania), only two -- Florida and Texas -- are states that are models of effective government. Ohio, Illinois and Michigan are similar to Pennsylvania in their tax burdens and regulatory environment -- and likewise in their lack of population and economic growth, while California and New York are among the highest-taxed and most-regulated states in the nation. These are hardly models of effective legislatures.

In a study of state legislative size, the Commonwealth Foundation looked at various outcomes of state policy -- lower government spending, lower tax burdens and greater economic freedom. None of these were affected much by state legislative size. However, several other reforms relating to the openness and professionalization of our legislators would have a meaningful effect on the process and outcomes of public policy and should be at the forefront of legislative reform.

NATHAN BENEFIELD
Director of Policy Research
Commonwealth Foundation
Harrisburg

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