INSURANCE
Health care costs take jump with BCBS plan
Thanks to Georgia’s decision to give the business to Blue Cross-Blue Shield and deny United Healthcare a chance to bid (“Public workers: Health plan hurts,” News, Jan. 12), all state employees and retirees now have a “new” insurance provider who will not offer co-pays. So instead of paying a $45 co-pay to visit the doctor when I have the flu, I have to decide if I’m sick enough to justify $185 for that same office visit. Ha! The cost will likely decide for me, and others who will not seek care when it’s needed, because it’s much less affordable now than it was. But I suppose the good news is that, at $185 per visit, it’ll only take 11 visits for me to meet my $2,000 deductible.
KEN PRICHARD, Loganville
DEKALB CITIES
Cityhood puts at risk pension obligations
Time to put the brakes on north DeKalb County’s latest effort to segregate itself from south DeKalb. In the rush to cityhood, has anyone taken the time to assess the potential threat to the DeKalb employee pension fund as county employment falls, only to be replaced by a multiplicity of smaller governmental entities whose employees will not be contributing to that fund?
With fewer and fewer workers paying in, thousands of retired workers and those soon to retire may find the secure future they were promised in serious jeopardy. These people spent all of their working lives in dangerous, low-paying jobs in exchange for that promise.
JAMES MILLER, Hoschton
HUMAN RIGHTS
However expressed, hatred is still wrong
I am writing in response to the letter writer whose letter (“Critic of Christians should look in mirror,” Letters, Jan. 13) stated that “Christians do hate the sin of homosexuality, not the person.” Hating part of the essence of who a person is and calling it a sin is hate. It is the same thing as saying you are not a racist because you just hate the sin of having black skin, not the person.
ALISA BENNETT, Atlanta
SECOND AMENDMENT
Let churches decide their own gun policies
Compare the recent two letters on expanding the laws where guns can be carried (“Firearms on campus will help reduce crime,” and “Many places where guns spell trouble,” Letters, Jan. 14). One cited how crime is increasing in “gun-free zones,” and the other was an irrational argument about guns on college campuses.
Only adults over 21 would be able to legally possess a weapon. There are laws in place to keep guns out of the hands of drunken teenagers. By one writer’s logic, love will stop a 9mm bullet. I’m wondering how many of Sunday’s AJC poll about guns allowed on church grounds actually attend church. Let individual churches decide, like businesses do now.
TOM COTTON, Senoia
