Letters to the editor
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Patients must have a role in controlling costs
Mary Golden's letter about the health care system ("A System of Ripoffs," July 1) demonstrates the missing element in the ongoing and failing debate about how to improve health care. What is missing from the health care debate is the role of patients in the purchasing aspect of health care.
Currently, the purchasing decisions are outside the hands of the people who actually use the health system and we all seem comfortable in allowing third parties (employers and insurance companies) to determine what we will pay for services. In no other purchasing environment do we allow someone else to make our purchases for us.
I've started asking my doctors and insurance companies how much a certain procedure or medications actually cost. Their response, almost always, is "Don't worry about it, the insurance will pay for it."
For the past 25 years I've served as a health care provider, health insurance executive and am now a health care consultant. I've seen all kinds of efforts to reform health care, from HMOs to managed care to today's current efforts at creating "medical homes" and "accountable care organizations." In all these formulas patients are left out of the mix and assume no responsibility for the costs of health care.
As soon as we patients start asking questions about health care costs, as Ms. Golden did, the sooner we'll begin to get our arms around runaway health care costs.
RICHARD CITRIN
O'Hara
Horror begets horror
With reference to Judy Harrison's letter regarding the Richard Poplawski trial and sentencing ("The Verdict Is Just, But There's No Reason for Joy," June 30), the following is from the book "For Your Own Good":
"If no child were ever humiliated, hurt or scared, war would not exist. If a child is terrorized, they will always have a terrorist within themselves, as they will always feel endangered."
Our world will change only when our children are parented with love, patience, tolerance and understanding. The horrors we see every day can be drastically reduced by such a basic principle. Coming from a law enforcement family background, I agree the verdict was just and the three devastated families were destroyed by a "terrorist within himself."
R. LOADMAN
Overbrook
Anti-consumer bill
A bill introduced by Rep. Mike Turzai and passed by the Pennsylvania House of Representatives recently will take away an important element of local control from locally elected and appointed officials. HB 10, a bill that affects only Allegheny County, would do away with the Port Authority's power to regulate private transit companies in Allegheny County. HB 10 gives the power to grant licenses and regulate private carriers seeking to operate in Allegheny County to the state's Public Utility Commission.
Curiously, the bill didn't enter the legislative process in the House Transportation Committee. Rather, it was assigned to the Consumer Affairs Committee and is now entering the state Senate process in the Consumer Protection and Professional Licensure Committee. It seems wrong that such an anti-consumer bill was given legislative birth in committees charged with protecting consumer interest.
First Published July 7, 2011 12:00 am
