OCR Text |
Show iS&ae "Vf 1lil!liHIi!!l!l!"ll!i!HlH!lt!!IlinillIllll1!IitnilllHUIHifniint!!HnilSlHIlf1IlIIlBllIlP LETTERS TO THE EDITOR- DESEEET NEWS f. - SALT LAKE C!TY, UTAH Medicare Law Inept We Stand For The Constitution Of The United States As Having Been Divinely Inspired 14A MONDAY, OCTOBER 2, 1972 EDITORIAL PAGE rh 'k$ - mTl Supreme Court: New Term, New Direction? "t There are, as usual, two sides to every issue. HEW Needs Your editorial of the other day, issue which an of side Shakeup, covers but one touches1 most all Americans because it reaches into their tax dollars, or perhaps they are among, will be a. the one out of eight in the country who I believe-i- t Therefore, this in a year. hospital patient side. other the is important to present equally Of course, all government programs should be administered with fiscal integrity and the greatest amount of efficiency and the least amount of gove and bureaucracy possible. The. ernmental X V red-tap- administration of the Medicare program has been chaotic from the beginning, borne principally in the ineptness of the law itself. No other president except George Washington, who started with an emoty bench, has nominated as many Supreme Court justices during his first term as President Nixon. That fact bears notice as the Nixon court begtos its first full term Monday. The cases it has agreed to hear include such areas as civil rights, criminal law, environmental issues, fairness in broadcasting, and business and labor law . My greatest concern at the moment is what occurs when the government acts in the manner in which your editorial recommends. Since the be- -, ginning of the year there has been a campaign! conducted by the Social Security Administration (not HEW as your editorial stutos is the administrative arm for the administration of Medicare) which has to be an overreaction to allegations that some health care providers are beating the wide-rangi- In the courts last session, the Nixon appointees Chief Justice Warren Burger and Justices Blackmun, Powell, and Rehnquist formed a remarkably cohesive bloc. They voted together in 54 of the 67 cases in which all participated. That solidarity should have a decisive impact on the record case load now before the court. Theres little chance, however, that the Nixon cast to the court means it will reverse the decisions of its traditionally more liberal predecessor, the Warren court. As former Chief Justice Charles Evans Hughes once noted: Stability in judicial opinions is of no little importance in maintaining respect for the courts work. Nevertheless, a more conservative tinge to the law is expected in several cases that will come before' the court this term. One is what controls, if any, should be the subject of obscene material imposed upon its distribution. am Jt tmrmrmmuir-- It's October r October is the most magnificent display of color in all the kingdom of plants with its autumnal foliage And it is glory that lights upon the. shoulders of the postman as he makes his rounds in Providence, that swirls after the children on their roll- -' er skates, in Price, that drifts through the windows of a passing bus in Holladay and drops like largesse in the laps of the passengers prevail? The court also must decide the constitutionality of antiabortion laws in Georgia and Texas, and whether an illegitimate child can sue his father for support. And it is the great shade trees in Federal Heights letting down their shining benediction, making the people on their way to church seem as if they had already gone to glory . . . In the environmental area, the court must decide if a state can enact laws more stringent than safeguards and penalrulties provided in the federal law. Also at issue is a lower-couing in which the three circuit court judges declared that the 1970 federal law which allowed states to enact their own laws did not allow laws concerning navigable waters. October is the elemental blue of the sky over Eden where the wind is tearing the bird calls to tat- - this-falli- ng ... In a most punitive and totally unreasonable manner, the SSA has engaged in retroactive denials of Medicare benefits after they have been paid, accounts settled, estates distributed, and hospitalization is placed into historical files. Then through government audits these cases are resurrected, retroactively, and the elderly are told that their insurance benefits were not in effect, and the hospital has no other coice than to turn upon them for payment of the new unpaid . And it is the long shafts of light from the setsun holding the Park City gardens in a trance ting while the valley below is steeped in night, and the lights of the speeding cars are being turned on . . . October is the long, straight road to Milford that is dusty soon after the light rain ceases and clears though clouds still hang like distant curtains around the edges of the world The court will hear six major obscenity cases, which raise such Constitutional questions as: Can the federal government forbid the importation of obscene material intended only for the private personal use of the importer? Can it prohibit interstate transportation, by common carrier, of such material if intended only for private use? And can states or communities use their own standards for judging obscenity, or should one nationwide standard anti-polluti- ters system. & ' . . . This is guaranteed to offend 100 percent of the parties involved, and is actually, shattering our public relations. Surely most any person could come up with a better solution than this type of fiscal mayhem, which actually adds terribly to the burden of the eldrerly, who were supposed to be benefited by the Medicare law. October is the Bristlecone pine that gives no hint of its age, but its massive trunk tells a tale of centuries of indomitable will and struggle, as its buttressed base seems to grip the thin soil of its Cedar Breaks ledge with wildcat claws . . . We are desperately trying to get underway a program which moved only at our own insistence to educate physicians so that vague government parameters could be interpreted in advance so that we could stop on the forefront these alledged violations and a save some of the heartaches involved with this inhuman treatment being administered by SSA. L. BRENT GOATES ' Administrator October is a landscape of turquoise blue sky, a silfar-of- f very glint of ranges, of red deseriic earth molded into conical hills to the tourist entering Utah from Nevada on Highway Six . . . And it is the lonely d cliffs, isolated columns, temple-lik- e formations, balanced rocks, and others that look like the dolmens and menhirs, of some vanished people north of Four Comers. . . . snow-cappe- many-colore- rt LDS Hospital n . When the court adjourned on June 29, it had already agreed to hear 99 cases during the current term. Several times that number were waiting a decision on whether they would be heard, and since then more than 400 additional cases have been brought to the court. effects on' Its clear that the new term will have all Americans as the court goes about its duty of interpreting the Constitution. Just as the government was finally about to get going on way beautification, under that effort. high- Congress is moving to pull the rug out from When Congress adopted the Highway Beautification Act in 1965 it made many unsightly roadside billboards illegal. But it took five years before enough money was allocated to get the job done, and another two years to get the states to agree to participate in a national drive. Now, however, the green light, is being given to an amendment to legalize signs that were previously illegal. Heres how the gimmick works: As the law now reads, signs beside interstate and primary roads are supposed to be limited to directional and other official signs and notices. The amendment would stretch the definition of permissible signs to include those s, directional signs pertaining to rest stops, camp grounds, food wonders. natural and and automotive services, lodging gas ser-vide- Within a few days, thousands of billboards could be turned into directional signs with the addition of a few words. . I i t i ; The amendment is being sold on the basis that directional information is a service to the traveling public. True enough. But lets give travelers essential information in condensed form without despoiling the landscape with gaudy eyesores. Keep those billboards coming down, please. Medicare: Whose Fault? a letter to the editor on this page points out, government at least some of the blame in abuses of the program. That much should be obvious in the operation of the program from its very beginning, when lawmakers vastly underestimated its cost. Expenditures for fiscal 1972 alone are estimated at more than $17 billion in total spending for Medicare and Medicaid. Some officials estimate that the deficit could reach $24 billion over the operation of the program. That may be a clue to the present hassle with hospitals and physicians. Obviously, the program is spending far beyond its original concepts and needs a complete review to determine its present status and future projections. As also must share Medicare-Medicai- d state-feder- al One of the chief complaints of both physicians and hospitals is cases where the coverage has been that of retroactive denial auditor disalapproved and arrangements finalized, and then an a patient or n means That agreed-upocoverage. lows part of the his kin must be dunned for the balance, causing hard feelings. One answer is to more fully educate phvsicians on the legal what is permitted and what isn't. That technicalities of the law has been a particularly fuzzy part of the laws administration in the nast Until the law is either simplified or more adequately explained to those who must abide by its tenets, there is bound to be more groping by physicians and more charges of abuse by government. Afterthought. . . In military semantics, no army ever runs away or even retreats; it merely withdraws to previously prepared posi-- . tions. it Whose Welfare Program ? In 1964, Americans voted in droves against Barry Goldwater because they wanted to stay out of the Vietnam war So Lyndon Johnson was elected and led them into the very war they had hoped to avoid. JOSEPH C. HARSCH welfare ethic seems The rapidly becoming the dominant issue in this 1972 campaign, and it is just as false. In 1972, it looks more and more as though Americans' will vote in droves Billboards Vs. Beauty On Legal Exams against George McGovern because they think by so doing that they will put an end to the the United States. welfare ethic in But if Richard Nixon is which seems the more i ely outcome, the Congress is virtually certain to approve Mr. Nixons welfare reform program, which includes provisions for minimum family income support at $2,400 a year, and this means that minimum welfare for every American family will become part of the American system. The issue which swayed most voters in 1964 was a false one, as the results in Vietnam demonstrated. (We would dear-- , ly like to know whether a President Goldwater would also have escalated the Vietnam war. We never will know.) But Americans certainly did not escape that escalation by voting against Senator Goldwater. It was the dominant issue in the 1964 campaip and a false one. First, those who talk about the welfare ethic as being contrary to the work ethic are in ignorance of, or deliberately ignoring, the results of technical studies which demolish any theory-thathose who are on welfare are there because they prefer welfare to work. On the contrary, those on welfare are in two classes. Many are on welfare because age, infirmity, or illness have made it impossible for them to work. Civilized societies have always taken care of such people. The overwhelming majority of the others on welfare are there because failure to find jobs has eroded confidence in ability to get or to hold jobs. But even among those who have given up hope there is a residual preference for work over welfare. It is simply not true that any significant number of Americans prefer welfare to supporting themselves by honest dren. The original Nixon plan would provide a $2,400 minimum income, to which the Senate Finance Committee is considering adding $800 in food stamps. Senator McGovern would go to $4,000, but has said he would be willing to accept the Nixon version of the welfare reform bill. t effort. Doubters should consult Do The Poor Want to Work (by Leonard Goodwin, Brookings Institution, Washington. D.C., $6.50). The difference between the Nixon and McGovern welfare plans is $800 a year for a mother with four dependent chil- - In other words, the two candidates are in substantial agreement with most people who have seriously studied the welfare problem. Virtually everyone, includ-.in- g both candidates, agrees that the present system is hopelessly out of date and needs drastic overhaul. They agree that the United States should have a uniform system. They agree that the new system should be designed to encourage work. And they agree that it should also include a minimum family support That is what other modem civilized countries have. It is what the United States is headed toward. The day of it? coming might conceivably be delayed in a wrangle between a president of one party and a Congress of the other. Democrats dont really want Mr. Nixon to get credit for launching the new welfare system, or vice versa. The time of the coming of the new system may be affected by whether the man who wins the White House also wins the Congress, but not by the choice for the - dential Election Stadium where we are witnessing one of the duller political football games ever played before a nationwide TV audience. The McGovern team is behind by 28 points in the and the polls Mr. Buchwald Nixon team seems fo be running arwill. This is particularly interesting because Nixon has not even been in the ball game. Hes been sitting on the bench and sending in plays to his assistants. This has enraged the McGovern team that claims it came to play Nixon and not his flunkies. But Nixon has said it is unprofessional for someone in his position to go out on the field and mix it up with thC McGovern rabble. In the first quarter the McGovern team got off to a bad start when McGoverns star running back, Tom Eagleton, fumbled the ball. McGovern backed Eagleton in the fumble, but a few minutes later substituted Sarge Shriver! in the bacrfield and sent Eagleton to the locker room. This caused great consternation on the team and they were penalized one month for unsportsmanlike credibility. Another thing that caused the Mc- Govern team to lose yardage was that although McGovern is the quarterback, ART BUCHWALD everyone on the team w'as calling a play. When McGovern would call for a pass, Shriver would run with the ball. When McGovern signaled for a punt several of his linemen went over his head and tried an end run. It took almost the entire first half for McGovern to persuade the fans he was calling the signals, and many people still are not The McGovern team was selected to play in the White House Bowl because of their new brand of foctbail. But as we have seen during the first half, they are playing the same style of football as previous teams without, I might add, much success. are tom and 'a few of the players have no shoes They maintain every time the Nixon team calls a timeout, the water boy, Maurice Stans, brings another bucket of money onto the field. Money does seem to be a problem in this game, but thats only part of it. Lets face it, folks, George McGovern is no Joe Namath. And that about summarizes the first half. The teams have now come back on the field for the second half. There is McGovern and Shriver screaming at Nixon to get off the bench, but Nixon is ignoring them and instruct. ing Spiro Agnew where to punt. GUEST CARTOON 1218 - 4th Ave. Once Beautiful S.L We traveled through your once beautiful and magnificent dty last week. We say once beautiful because as Los Angeles residents we were absolutely appalled at the pollution, smog, and manufacturing irritants being released upon Salt Lake City and the Wasatch Valley by the steel and copper monopolies. It is unbelievable that the citizens of Utah are willing to trade the fiscal support of these panies for a polluted atmosphere such as you have now. Do your citizens have any idea of the effects of this pollution on your children? Come to Los Angeles and see our children huddled in their classrooms, unable to play outside because of the incessant smog alerts. Is that what you want for the children of Salt Lake? As professional people- inquiring for a smog free atmosphere in which to live and raise our family, we could not wait to leave your polluted dty. We hope that this message in a small way will alarm you and the people of the Salt Lake area to the ecological hazards now upon you so that you may take immediate action before it is too late. HARRY S. COOK PAMELA N. COOK Los Angeles There has been a great deal of recrimination about this contest. The McGovern team claims the Nixon team bugged the McGovern locker room and stole the McGovern game plan. Flimsy Excuses I have been employed at the University of Utah for 10 years. During that time I have travoyer eled the Penrose Drive route to and from the campus at various hours during the day. In all those years I have never encountered much traffic nor have I ever encountered speeding traffic. Like so many others with similar experience, i can only condude that the excuses the citv rommis-f-r th; closinS of that 'street are Nixon had one of his assistant coaches look into these charges in what he called the most thorough investigation in football history. The assistant coach concluded no one or the Nixon team had anything to do with the bugging of the locker room &'d was appalled that the McGovern team would make an issue of it. team also has The McGovern claimed that one of the reasons it hasnt played well is the lack of money. Their helmets are denied, their shoulder pads complain about the welfare system; that our black sisters are forced to flee a police establishment (widely celebrated in America media folklore) while our brother Russell McGee is brought to trial in chains; that a million dollars and the Presidents energy is expended to convict Mr. Mason of circumstantial witchcraft; and, most heinous, in the context of 20th Century legal solutions, the unrighteousness of the majority has grown to epic proportions and its memory has shrunk to such idiot levels, that 60 percent forget ITT, Watergate, previous promises and all concepts of fairness and equity and, unless the polls too are cowed by the power of the President executed against Daniel 'Ellsberg and the networks, for example, No wonder the new lawyers are cast as rebels, as their nurturing generation rebelled against trusts, the horse and buggy, polio and diptheria. I am sure they will discover, as their ancestors did, this current situation has as its purpose to seal the shift of power from the oldies to them. In the future they may even be known as the Utah 40. ROBERT N. MACRI (J.D.) presidency. At The White House Bowl WASHINGTON Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. This is Howard Lowsell and were at. halftime at Presi- Cloudy only to those near the event, we who have our perspective understand why only 60 of the recent Utah Bar candidates passed the exam-- , ination. Young lawyers have encompassed and surpassed traditional solutions to problems so long regarded as exclusively legal and are presenting alternatives to their legalistic elders. We' see how the traditional solutions have led our promised country down the primrose path: that repressive unequal income tax robs whole classes of our brothers and enriches others so that they ?y-1,1 a"d that the emission has "Good Heavens, George McGovern, that you?" is ltereSt 0f 3 WeaJthy few. The next time we have the opportunity of electing city commissioners, lets be sure we elect men who serve the majority. KATHLEEN L. DARLEY Ave. 5;9-!3t- h I |