Readers Write 9/11

TRANSPORTATION

There’s no demand for high-speed rail transit

The campaign to build high-speed rail seems to ignore the obvious problem: who will ride it? If the demand was there, the railroads would already have them on the rails. That system will be expensive to build, and will take a lot of time. The energy spent to build the rail system will far exceed what is “saved.”

Malcolm Maxwell, Buford

HOPE

Look at lottery officials’ compensation first

I found “Lottery funds can’t keep up with HOPE” (News, Aug. 31) to be most informative as to the problems and shortfalls facing future recipients of the HOPE scholarships, but I was hoping to read of some possible solutions.

The immediate solution would be a citizens advisory board of local business leaders charged with reviewing the lottery officers’ salary, bonuses and benefits.

Each year, we read an article about the excessive bonuses and salaries paid to various officers and staff members — and then a few days later, all is forgotten. A few years ago, we were advised that the former executive director of the lottery, Rebecca Paul, and others were paid a substantial sum when they left the lottery, supposedly to pay for accrued vacation time, etc.

Saving several million a year may not sound like much, yet it would go a long way toward paying for books and fees.

Michael L. Sullivan, Dunwoody

HEALTH CARE

Public option needed for affordable health care

In a shrinking economy, my husband and I live on $40,000 a year. I am self-employed and pay for a non-group health insurance policy with a $10,000 deductible. Each year my premium has gone up. By 2011, I will be paying $4,800 a year (our biggest cost-of-living outlay each year) for inadequate insurance with top-dollar co-pays. By contrast, my husband is on Social Security, and pays a modest $2,000 per year for Medicare and supplemental health insurance provided through his retirement plan.

We need a public plan option to ensure lower premiums, caps on premium inflation, no co-pays or deductibles, no denial of payment for treatments, and no denial due to pre-existing conditions.

Sybil Thomas, Whitesburg

HEALTH CARE

Experience with public option only positive

I am amazed at the low level of thought offered by Newt Gingrich when he claims that allowing Americans to have an option to choose a public health care plan is somehow equivalent to creating an Orwellian state of repression (“Competition, not rationing, is cure,” Opinion, Aug. 20). Stymieing health care reform based on this kind of argument is like not buying a car because it could turn into a lion and kill your dog. The public option is the most important part of President Obama’s plan for health care reform. All my sisters have horror stories about the responses they’ve received when they make a request for coverage to their medical insurance plans.

I used to have the same stories. Now I get Medicare, and it is a dream! No paperwork; my doctors get paid without a hassle, and they know they can’t overcharge me because Congress, the president and the U.S. Supreme Court say, “This patient has rights.”

Rebecca D. Watson, Atlanta