Our Lt. Gov Mary Taylor – close to criminally negligent

Letters to the Editor

Columbus Dispatch, 

As head of the Ohio Department of Insurance, Lt. Gov. Mary Taylor successfully kept over 168,000 Ohioans from getting quality, affordable health insurance.  Her actions and inactions come close to criminal negligence. 

The ObamaCare numbers were released on May 1^st . . . 45 pages of numbers, statistics, charts and graphs.  And Ben Sutherly’s article on the front page of the next morning’s Dispatch captured the essence of how Ohioans benefited . . . not as much as they should have. 

“About 155,000 Ohioans selected a plan through the federal marketplace.”  But that’s 18% below the Obama administration’s 190,000 goal for Ohio. 

At the same time the 7 million goal for the entire country was beat by 15% in spite of the problematic rollout. 

In New York 70% more people signed up than their target goal. 

If Ohio had surpassed its goal by that same percentage, we would have a total of 322,810 enrollees. 

That begs the question:  “Why did New York and other states do so much better than Ohio?” 

They set up their own state-run marketplace.  Mary Taylor didn’t. 

They explained the importance of having health insurance, that pre-existing conditions no longer mattered, and what real insurance is.  Mary Taylor didn’t. 

They encouraged their citizens to explore their options.  Mary Taylor didn’t. 

But she didn’t simply do nothing.  She aggressively tried to dissuade Ohioans from applying for coverage while making it harder for Navigators to get certified so they could help people through the application process. 

She warned of 88% premium increases because of ObamaCare which turned out to be flat out wrong. And as Ben Sutherly pointed out in Friday’s Dispatch the ‘numbers’ show “the pools of people who signed up in every state are sufficient to keep premiums stable in 2015” as well. 

Ohioans deserve more from their public officials.

Homophobic title cinched

Letters to the Editor

Columbus Dispatch, 

While billionaire, Don Sterling, and millionaire, Cliven Bundy, vie for the title of who is the most racist, our own Jeannine Vogel wins, hands down, as the most homophobic person in Columbus, (Dispatch letter, April 28^th.) 

While citing statistics indicating that less than 0.2% of Americans would enter into a gay marriage, she’s convinced that allowing gay marriage would be “unfair” to her and to most people because it “infringes on traditional marriage.” 

I agree that many things in this world are unfair and should be corrected but she failed to explain just how that gay couple, down the street, affects her in any way whatsoever.

“Nobody wants ObamaCare” but 7,100,000 sign up for it

When you spend months working for something and then win, it’s a truly joyous feeling.

Both times Obama got elected I experienced that rush.  And I experienced it again today when he announced that 7.1 million had signed up for ObamaCare.

Over the past week I’ve spent 34 hours calling people on the phone and asking if they need help signing up for health insurance.  The only real help I could offer, outside of answering a few basic questions, was to give them the healthcare.gov website and the 24-hour phone number for them to call to sign up.

And it’s a good feeling when you find some poor soul who is in desperate need of insurance and has no idea what to do, who has never heard of ObamaCare, and if he has, he thinks it was repealed.

When you get someone like that on the phone and hear them thanking you for calling, you can tell you have just altered their life in a positive way.  And that’s pretty much the way those 34 hours of my life went.

Of course there was that one guy yesterday, the last day of open enrollment.  I was on the phone from noon to 8 pm.  On the third call I made, he answered, and I explained that I was calling to see if he had health insurance or if he needed any help signing up.

He immediately started complaining because we were wasting government money calling people about a health care plan that “nobody needs and nobody wants.”

When I informed him that I was an unpaid volunteer, that no government money was being spent, and that 18 years ago, long before the Affordable Care Act, when I was out of work for 6 months, no insurance company would sell me insurance because I had diabetes, he accused me of lying.  He was sure that they would have sold me a policy, but at a higher price.  But back then I wanted insurance and my broker said that no insurer would even offer a quote.

When I said that many people I had been talking to wanted insurance and couldn’t get it without ObamaCare, he again said I was lying and hung up on me.

I went ahead and called the next person on my list.

But you know what?  I still have his phone number and his address.

It’s going to feel good when I send a note, to his home, saying that evidently 7.1 million did want it and bought it, that millions more signed up for it through Medicaid Expansion, (and likely millions more would have signed up if the other 24 states had expanded Medicaid), and over 3 million more kids under age 26 got added to their parents’ insurance.

Though it’s still too soon to know for sure, the best estimate so far is that 9½ million fewer people are uninsured now than before ObamaCare.

Maybe some people wanted it after all.

Today is a good day to be an American.

Let’s all vote

Letters to the Editor

Columbus Dispatch, 

What’s wrong with opening the polls for early voting from 11 am to 8 pm Wednesday through Sunday? 

Secretary of State, Jon Husted, has set the hours to be from 8 am to 5 pm Monday through Friday, but for those who have normal work hours that is problematic. 

Both scenarios offer 45 hours per week to vote, but only one of them offers evening and weekend hours to make it convenient for most people.

ObamaCare — over 4 million copies sold

Letters to the Editor

Columbus Dispatch,

In the first sentence of Friday’s lead editorial, (March 14^th), you say the Affordable Care Act “killed jobs, raised costs and generated turmoil” in the nation’s health care industry.  But not a single example of a job lost, or a cost raised was included.

There was turmoil generated, but that was the result of outright lies, half truths, and fabricated horror stories told by politicians who worried about losing their own jobs when the voters discovered the true benefits of the ACA that those politicians voted to repeal 50 times.

In the last sentence you say Americans “can’t afford” the health insurance offered by the ACA.  Again, not a single example.

I realize that the word “Opinion” is printed above your editorial, so you aren’t constrained by facts.  I’m sure that is helpful to you.

For the past year I, and thousands of other ‘Get Covered America’ volunteers, have been reaching out to people without health insurance to help them get covered.

I have yet to find anyone who can’t afford health insurance through the ACA.

I have found many who tell me that it is a “life altering experience to finally be able to get covered and not worry about what would happen” if they got really sick or injured.

And I found some who had heard the lies and simply didn’t believe it was possible to get quality, affordable coverage until they saw the actual options available to them.

Let me know how many examples you want and I will be happy to provide their names and contact information.

More guns make schools safer?

Letters to the Editor

Columbus Dispatch,

I just love it.

In Thursday’s letter B. Sutton Coffman criticizes Toby Hoover’s earlier letter that suggested gun laws in this country are too lax, by saying “It would be nice if there were some facts to support that position, rather than Hoover’s nebulous claims.”

He then proceeds to list several of his own nebulous claims, conjectures, and opinions without offering a single fact to support any of them.

Let me offer just two facts and ask him to draw his own conclusion.

If you combine the populations of Great Britain, Germany, Japan, Sweden, Denmark, and Australia, you’ll get a population close to that of the United States.  We had over 30,000 gun deaths last year; they had less than 1,500.

Is that because Americans are more homicidal by nature, or could it be because those countries have stricter gun control laws?

The number of gun deaths per 100,000 of population in the U. S. is 10.3.  Japan’s rate is 0.06.  We are 172 times less safe.

Dave Girves

Bit by bit, more guns in Ohio

Letters to the Editor

Columbus Dispatch,

I respond to the response in the Tuesday letter “Concealed-carry does not boost violence.”  In it Lawrence Ferraris quotes statistics about the number of murders in Ohio compared to Illinois.

It isn’t simply ‘concealed-carry’ or ‘stand-your-ground’ laws that our legislators propose at the behest of the gun manufacturers.  Bit by bit, they make it easier and easier for more and more guns to be on our streets and in our homes.

While that certainly boosts their profits, it does little to protect our safety.

I would suggest Mr. Ferraris look at the bigger picture’s statistics.

If you combine the populations of Great Britain, Germany, Japan, Sweden, Denmark, and Australia, you’ll get a population close to that of the United States.  We had over 30,000 gun deaths last year; they had less than 1,500.

Is that because Americans are more homicidal by nature, or could it be because those countries have stricter gun control laws?

The number of gun deaths per 100,000 of population in the U. S. is 10.3.  Japan’s rate is 0.06.  We are 172 times less safe.

Dave Girves

Medicaid – yes, ObamaCare – no??

Letters to the Editor

Columbus Dispatch,

If there was any doubt that the Dispatch’s editorial opinion isn’t based on facts, or the editorial department is separate from its news division, that confusion was put to rest with Thursday’s editorial discussing last Monday’s vote to Expand Medicaid.

In it you said that House Speaker “Batchelder replaced anti-expansion Representatives on the Controlling Board with others known to support it.”  And that Senate President “Faber left in place his two appointees who were also known to support expansion.”

But on the front page of Tuesday’s Dispatch, Jim Siegel, Catherine Candisky, and Joe Vardon reported the vote was 5 – 2.  One of Batchelder’s Representatives and one of Faber’s Senators, both, according to your editorial, “known to support expansion,” actually voted against it.

I was in that hearing room, seated right behind Ms. Candisky, and can assure you that, not only was their reporting accurate, but also from the tone of the questions the Representative and Senator asked they were never supporters of expansion.

In that same editorial you accused Republican legislators who rejected expansion earlier this year of “ignoring the fact that people without health insurance don’t go entirely without medical care; instead, when a health problem becomes a crisis, they go to emergency rooms and receive care that’s more expensive, less effective and not subject to any controls.”

You continued with “This willingness to put ideology and politics ahead of the well-being of Ohioans, not to mention common sense, is unconscionable.”

I find it ironic that the same quote could be used to describe the Republican’s and the Dispatch’s opposition to the Affordable Care Act.

Spin

Letters to the Editor

Columbus Dispatch,

On Thursday’s editorial page you cite the delay people experienced logging on the websites to sign up for ObamaCare as evidence that the law was “poorly conceived.”  That’s your take on it.

The official goal was to have 7 million people sign up for the new health insurance during the initial 6-month enrollment period.

But on that first day alone more than 10 million people tried to log on to the various exchange websites.

As Tony Pugh wrote in his article on your front page Thursday, 4.7 million visited healthcare.gov alone.

My take is that, while many wanted to get straight talk without the partisan spin, no one realized how wildly popular ObamaCare would be.

Dave Girves

Open letter to Ohio’s Director of the Department of Insurance

Mary Taylor,

In today’s Dispatch you are quoted as saying you don’t have much information to share when people call with questions about the new online marketplace.

I would suggest you tell them about http://www.healthcare.gov.  That website will not only answer most of their questions, but beginning Tuesday it will answer all of their questions because the federal marketplace will be open.

They will also be able to apply online for health coverage on that website as well, beginning Tuesday.

You should also give them the phone number that is currently operating 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, in 150 languages: 800-318-2596.  They can call that number and get an answer anytime . . . not the run around your office is evidently giving them.

Had you done your job and set up a marketplace geared to Ohioans’ needs you wouldn’t now feel like you’re out of the loop.

In the mean time check out this website for a brief overview of what ObamaCare is all about.

http://www.whitehouse.gov/share/what-obamacare-means-you

I’ll be sending more information soon to help you do your job.  Do you have any questions that I could answer for you right now?  I’m retired and I’m here to help you.

Dave Girves, Citizen