Letters

Focus on the real health reform issues

TO THE EDITOR: I sorely resent Business Insurance Senior Editor Joanne Wojcik, a self-styled "professional journalist," using my work to illustrate her complaints about "amateur bloggers" who, unlike her, are biased, unaccountable propagandists.

In her April 6 commentary, "Wherever You Read It, Standards Still Count," Ms. Wojcik wrote: "In a recent edition, while criticizing the Obama administration's attempts at national health reform, the blog author asserted that Massachusetts' reforms, which some have suggested may serve as a model for national health reform, are a failure because they don't follow the tenets of consumer-driven health. The blog doesn't acknowledge that Massachusetts' reforms have reduced the state's uninsured rate to just 2.7%."

First, I don't do a blog. I do a weekly newsletter, "The Consumer Power Report," which goes out to some 8,000 people across the country. Second, I'm no amateur. I have been in the health insurance business since 1979 and have been doing independent newsletters since 1991. Third, I'm not unaccountable. I put my name and contact information on everything I write. I will take responsibility for every word I utter in print or verbally. And I work hard to ensure I never say anything that cannot be supported.

I have often acknowledged that Massachusetts has succeeded in reducing its number of uninsured, and wrote on Jan. 2, 2008, that its success in enrolling people was "quite an achievement" that even "surprised state officials." That's an old story to my readers.

Whether the rate of uninsurance has dropped to 2.7% remains to be seen. I, like most serious analysts of these issues, am waiting for the March 2009 CPS numbers to be released from the Census Bureau. The March 2008 percentage of uninsured in Massachusetts was still at 9.4%, according to the bureau. I would suggest it is irresponsible of Ms. Wojcik to use an unverified figure such as 2.7% in making her point.

Meanwhile, I have done nine stories on Massachusetts since the election in November. They all cite other publications, such as the New York Times, Boston Globe, Wall Street Journal and Health Affairs. These publications share my concern that costs in Massachusetts are unsustainable and that there are not enough primary care services in the state to take care of the newly uninsured.

These are extremely serious issues that will similarly plague a national approach if it follows the Massachusetts model. And, yes, I contend that if Massachusetts had used the proven cost-saving ability of consumer-driven care, it would have a better handle on these issues. Perhaps Ms. Wojcik should turn her "journalist's code of ethics to seek the truth, to minimize harm, to maintain objectivity and to be accountable for what he or she reports" to the real problems in health reform.

Greg Scandlen

Senior Fellow and Director Consumers for Health Care Choices

Heartland Institute

Hagerstown, Md.

Let free enterprise system do its job

TO THE EDITOR: I got a chuckle out of both Hank Greenberg's bailout plan for AIG ("Greenberg Calls for Revamped Bailout for AIG," BI, April 6) and the letter to the editor from an AIG supporter who seems to forget that it was AIG who came running to the government for bailout money due to their own errors in judgment and due diligence ("AIG Can't be Blamed for All Our Woes," BI, April 6). Who are they trying to kid?

Those who live by the sword often die by the sword. AIG is not deserving of taxpayer money or sympathy. Let the free enterprise system work the way it should work, and let better companies pick up the market share and move on. Our country and free enterprise system will be better off, and our children will learn a valuable lesson about accountability.

Corby Pelto

Pelto Group Inc.

Minneapolis

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