Find abusers of Social Security
4/20/2013When are President Obama and members of Congress going to get it into their heads that the money in Social Security is not theirs (“Social Security, Medicare get cut in Obama budget; Liberals horrified as deal sought with GOP over economy,” April 11)?
The workers and retired workers of this country contributed to Social Security. It’s our money, not theirs. Why should we be losing any of our benefits, including cost-of-living raises, just because they say the program is in trouble and needs an overhaul?
Social Security is in trouble because of abuse by people who receive benefits when they shouldn’t. Officials should do a better job of checking before benefits are granted.
JAMES YINGLING
Sunset Boulevard
Better health-care funding needed
The headline on your April 7 article “Health-care act program lacks money” read like an epiphany. For the Obama Administration, it has never been a matter of health-care cost, but of who pays for it.
This has meant the federal government would foot the bill. Where was the media analysis when legislation was pending and critics were saying that the program would be financially unsustainable without tax increases that would affect the working middle class?
The time has come to look seriously at containing health-care costs. A first step might be regulation to discourage the duplication of underused hospital services. Some thought should be given to regulating more closely the cost of pharmaceuticals through increased generic production and use.
Regulations should allow greater competition among health-care insurers, especially across state lines.
These strategies would make private health care affordable for all but the poorest of our citizens, without the burden of another costly tax-supported bureaucracy.
The less financially able could receive high-quality health care thorough a more modestly sized, federally administered program.
JOHN STEWART
Monclova Township