HEALTH CARE
Single payer is best solution for insurance
The federal Pre-Existing Condition Insurance Plan is open to individuals denied coverage because of a pre-existing medical condition. After being denied by several providers, I found an affordable major medical policy similar to the group policy I used to have before losing my job that permanently excludes my pre-existing condition from coverage. I am ineligible for the federal program. My choice is to forgo insurance and hope to be let into the program in six months, or hope my condition does not cause a problem until regulation precludes denial based on pre-existing conditions.
The current health insurance market singles out the elderly and unfit to increase profit. I favor single payer as a solution. Kyle Reising, Watkinsville
UNEMPLOYMENT
Take programs away, and solve the problem
When I was a young boy living in the Depression years, men who were unemployed (and there were many) took almost any job that was available just to survive — or they went with the Civilian Conservation Corps and did work that was, in many cases, much harder than farm work. Of course, there were no entitlements such as unemployment insurance, food stamps and various other government programs. People could not be choosy. Believe me: Back then, farmers in Georgia would have more people to work than they could employ.
I note in “In Georgia’s fields, a growing anxiety” (News, June 4) that employers could not get people to work on farms. Take the entitlement programs away and that probably would no longer be the case. So much for unemployment in Georgia.
Fred Hahn, Roswell
JOBS
Reduce the giveaways, force folks to do the job
As long as we continue to have the entitlement society in America that we have today, the concern that there will not be enough legal workers to handle the crops and other so-called “menial” jobs out there is probably true. So why not solve that problem first? Reduce the give-aways and force those who are healthy but live a relatively good life on food stamps to go to work — menial jobs or not. Supplement their pay if necessary to allow them to feed their families if the pay for working the crops won’t do it.
But forget the handouts (and forget the excuse of not having enough Americans to do the job). Dennis C. Brown, Villa Rica
CONGRESS
Top priority should be protecting our safety net
Members of Congress shouldn’t be wasting time interfering in the National Labor Relations Board’s process. Their first priority should be protecting the safety net for everyday Americans: creating jobs and finding ways to make our economy stronger.
With our economic recovery stalling, and millions of Americans still unemployed, politicians should be focused on the issues that matter to the middle class. Instead, corporate-backed politicians and pundits are attacking the National Labor Relations Board, which is charged with safeguarding workers’ rights.
Richard Hite, Decatur
