READERS WRITE

Free health care cost us a free market

I was intrigued by the letter from the family physician lamenting that if the free market was the best way to allocate resources, why is our health care so abysmal (“Health care reform a must,” @issue, Nov. 2). What the doctor fails to recognize is that the health care market has not been free since World War II.

During the war, federally mandated wage and price controls encouraged industry to lure new employees by offering them free medical insurance. This created the society that sought someone else’s money to satisfy its needs. Suddenly it was no longer important for these lucky folks to worry about the cost of their medical care because someone else was paying for it. This drove demand, unfettered by cost considerations.

Now the poor Joe who didn’t have free insurance had to deal with the grossly inflated market and seek his own insurance or pay for his own care. But you can’t just buy the insurance you feel you need, but rather what your state legislators dictate. So now the above-mentioned Joe has to purchase the insurance that state politicians dictate, whether he needs maternity insurance or desires mental health coverage or hangnail protection. The health care industry is anything but “free market” today, and it is destined to get much worse.

EARL HIDER, Snellville

Progressive isn’t same as progress

An opinion column (“McCain’s idol Roosevelt sounded more like Obama,” @issue, Oct. 31) by Jonathan Zimmerman implies that John McCain’s opposition to increasing taxes on the top 5 percent of wage earners goes against Theodore Roosevelt’s belief in a progressive tax system.

Neither McCain nor any other Republican I’m aware of has ever spoken out against a progressive tax system. We simply feel that when 5 percent of the wage earners in a society pay 90 percent of the income taxes, while 40 percent pay nothing, we’ve progressed enough.

ALLEN EUBANKS, Dahlonega

Gwinnett made the process too hard

I agree with the letter writer from Gwinnett County regarding early voting (“Gwinnett inept, puts fairness at risk,” @issue, Nov. 2). It took my husband two tries to actually cast his vote with a total time investment of 7 1/2 hours. I applied for an absentee ballot and could not get through on the fax number listed on the secretary of state’s Web site. I discovered a second fax number from the Gwinnett County site that worked.

On the envelope of my absentee ballot, it said “additional postage may be required.” The instructions provided on the inside by the Gwinnett County office instructed me to attach one 42-cent stamp.

Then came the news that the ballot will have to be recopied by election workers. Why weren’t the forms tested before mailing?

Such ineptitude calls for some careful scrutiny of whom we have in charge of the process. It makes me wonder if there is more interest in discouraging voters rather than encouraging participation in the process.

SUSAN DOUGHERTY, Lilburn

Taxes can help others, as God would want

I wonder where all this talk came from, speaking of “liberal” as though it is a dirty word. I am a white, 78-year-old woman who votes Democratic. I try to follow the teachings of Jesus, who said “love (and care for) your neighbor as yourself.”

Taxes are necessary because as a society and community of citizens, we must express that caring attitude with organizations, foundations and agencies that support all of our people, giving each the dignity we all deserve as part of God’s created world. If that’s liberal, the Republicans have lost it.

ELIZABETH L. PENDERGRAST, Atlanta