| Show ao L4 II t 't t t 0 CHICAGO TRIBUNE SERVICE 1 storative breast surgery medical treatment for diaper rash stripping of varicose veins health services that may have uncertain or limited value Newborn care will be covered intensive neonatal treat- ment for extremely premature babies (23 weeks' gestation 500 grams in weight) will not Drug therapy for HIV infection goes above the line But only comfort and hospice care — not aggressive treatment — are included for those in the last stages of AIDS or cancer This first specific proposal to ration health care drew criticism in Washington last week when a draft of a report being prepared by the congressional Office of Technology Assessment was leaked The document purportedly criticizes the Ore- gon plan for making subjective decisions drawing up its priority list and for in- tending to deprive Medicaid recipients of some forms of care But that of course is what rationing really means Rationing is also what Is implied in CHICAGO — This is what health-car- e rationing looks like — at least in ' Oregon where the nation's first open deliberate rationing system is scheduled to Caul fur Medicaid recipients this summer It's a list of 709 medical conditions coupled with treatment arranged in a rough and arbitrary order of priority Between numbers 5C7 and 588 there's a cutoff line Medicaid money will pay for the health services above the line but not for the rest The cutoff is open public the result of debate consensus building and legislation in Oregon Like it or not the plan could be a model for widespread rationing cf health care elsewhere in the United States High priority on the Oregon list goes to preventive care — prenatal services immunizations medical and surgical care for treatable cancers mammograms dental services Also near the top are repair of deep open wounds appendectomy treatment for burns and services that could prevent death restore health or improve the quality of life Below the cutoff too far down to be paid for are treatment for infertility re ' - Iall I I 1 p ' I t health-car- e plans circulating around Washington that promise "basic health care for everyone" But unlike the Oregon planners their promoters don't get around to explaining what won't be ie Joan 1 - - Beck included in their "basic" care packages Oregon's Medicaid rationing plan which can't go into effect until the Health Care Financing Administration grants the state a waiver is the most controversial part of a major effort to provide health care for all Oregon residents Cutting the health services that Medic-iaid will cover would save enough money to expand coverage to include all those below the federal poverty level planners estimate The state will add about 120000 people to the 200000 who already get Medicaid It will also increase the Medic-thos- e aid appropriation by $33 million The state has also established a medical insurance pool to help those unable to get coverage at reasonable cost from conventional sources And a system n ay t 1 I i : 0 4 - - - : ' t - - ' i ' EDWARD R GOLDEN Salt Lake City Willing to Serve Many have the idea that to be- come a politician they must possess great knowledge compassion and money They must be willing to make great sacrifices for the sake of all people Politicians say "It's a dirty job but somebody has to do it" ' I would have to be utterly stupid to believe any politician places my welfare above his or her own In I my opinion to become a politician these are the only qualifications one needs: Be able to talk out of both sides of your mouth a Never let lack of integrity or morals make you feel guilty Be willing to justify your pay increases Be willing to travel and enjoy life on taxpayers' money a Never never feel you have I done anything wrong I am looking forward to the day 4 i when a political leader is found who honestly loves the people enough to forsake their own self' ishnese and greed and serve the people who elect them FERN H HUNT Salt Lake City l' z lio I ' tA t ' - '' h' Tr I I 47 Reform Welfare I am a single parent I have been alone from the day I became preg4 nant I was 16 years old when I 4 became pregnant and I got a job I have never received assistance : from the state I understand that there is aid when needed I can : sympathize with people who need ' help but as a taxpayer for the last - 11 years I am concerned I don't understand why there are so many people on assistance - Most of them are young mothers who don't want to go to school nor '' I u 4 : - : ' v " r 5 4 ' 4 rt 11 do they care to work They simply think this is something they have coming to them I believe about 60 percent of Ithe mothers have live-i- n boyfriends about 30 percent of live-ithe men don't work They 1 do drugs or deal them The people of Utah are con- cerned about schools and why 1 children are not being properly educated The young parents of our society are not capable of educating young children at home for they are not educated themselves I think the case workers need to door to door and check into sit- go 1 1 uations the way they did years ago and guide these people who Find them are not I special schools to learn and find r I them jobs so they are not depen t dent on welfare I ' n 1 ' 2 (I J 44 A J r-- 't 2 il I A l well-educate- 1 1 1 d MARYANN CASTILLO Sandy Where to Write dress and daytime telephone numbers Information other than your name will be kept confidential Preference Is given to original letters of 300 words or less that are typewritten and permit publication of the writer's true name (Names may be withheld for good reason) All letters are subject to editing Mall to Public Fe rum The Salt Lake Tribune PO Box 867 Salt Lake City double-- spaced Utah 84110 War of e Facts In criticizing Rainer Huck in her Common Carrier article ( The Salt Lake Tribune Feb 9) Jane Leeson of the Wilderness Society states with regard to the wilderness debate "The last thing we need is an infection of the debate with spurious information" I agree However the principal source of "spurious information" in this debate has emanated from Leeson's environmental Ms Business Rules camp A very few examples of prevarication inserted into this debate by Efforts by the Legislature to protect the health and comfort of are commendable As with automobile emissions laws however the little guy is always the one taken to task while big business is allowed to spew out poison which harms us all Drive past Geneva Steel in Utah dounty and it sickens you Drive to Wendover and witness the world's hazardous waste coining to rest in the environmentalists: "There are only 4 million acres wilof congressionally-designatederness on National Forest land" The truth is that more than 30 million National Forest acres have been so designated states have more-- "Forty-eigdesignated wilderness than Utah and 49 states have more designated wilderness than Nevada" The truth is according to 1989 Wilderness Society data Utah had more designated wilderness than 37 states and Nevada had more wilderness than 23 other states six of which had none "Coyotes cougars and elk can survive only in designated wilderness and quality hunting and fishing can be maintained only in such wilderness" These assertions are so preposterous they should require no comment non-smoke- d ht our backyard ED GOMER Olympic Costs The total cost to put on the Win- ter Olympics at Albertville France has reached $18 billion The ice rinks alone have cost $50 million the lugebobsled run cost $44 million This cost for a luge run is high considering that there are only 3500 lugers worldwide Meanwhile at Lillehammer Norway site of the 1994 Winter Olympics they have already spent $13 billion in preparation and the sites are not complete It is expected that by 1994 the cost will reach or exceed $2 billion The Calgary Winter Olympics cost $900 million In view of these costs it would seem that the Utah Olympics committee should review its cost estimates and bring them uo to date Grenoble France which hosted the Winter Olympics over 20 years ago is still paying on the debt and no one is using the facilities Our facilities at Squaw Valley have deteriorated as have the facilities at Lake Placid No one uses these facilities for training or for shows The history of Winter Olympics has been a financial disaster with the facilities being used only once and abandoned Does Utah want to continue that history and incur a big debt? Perhaps the committee should hold another statewide referendum on the matter FRANK W MILLSAPS Salt Lake City English-owne- d Kennecott is a major polluter Can't you just see Gov Norm Bangerter standing in front of a train or truck as did Idaho's Gov Cecil Andrus in order to protect the citizens of Utah? The old saying "Beware of Greeks bearing gifts" should be changed to "Beware of anyone bearing gifts" The sad fact of life today is that we have been sold down the river by our leaders Representation like the judicial system is sold to the highest bidder be he friend or foe How anyone today can repeat the Pledge of Allegiance and keep a straight face is beyond me WAYNE HEALEY Salt Lake City West Valley City st support But some form of rationing seems inevitable as health-car- e costs continue to grow despite all other efforts at containment and the demand for technology seems insatiable The Oregon plan at least will let the nation see on a limited scale how open and deliberate rationing works out It may be preferable to having 35 million people without health insurance Or signing up for a national health-car- e system that will ration by long waits for care or other covert strategies Or losing our national competitive edge because of the burden of rising health benefit costs Or maybe the reality of rationing will be the incentive to find a better alternative than any that's been proposed so far IC Rxatz &jy rafot) - A litalt4-- - s - ko) r i'''- 4 1 1 1 r 13 1' t tNu W' ckl 1 Crl ''' - L 1' e I j - 41? : I FEEL 14EKEM cl:4-koti- i i d high-price- P t For more than 150 years Latter-day Saint prophets have been teaching that in company with a Heavenly Father there is also a Heavenly Mother Today an increasing chorus of Mormon women is actively petitioning church leaders to reveal their Heavenly Mother her female characteristics her unique relationship to her earthly children and her eternal status They are doing it in symposiums literary arts public addresses music prayers and loving confrontations Perhaps it is time for those leaders who claim the privilege of divine revelation in such matters to secure this important information for all of us Clearly we live in an era of worldwide struggle to determine the appropriate role of women And if millions of Mormons should seek such a revelation out of the righteous desires of their hearts why would God withhold it? Indeed has there ever been a time when the world was in greater need of knowing its maternal JAMES E CHAPMAN Salt Lake City When submitting letters to the Public Forum please include your full name signature ad- What will happen when the Oregon plan is in operation and some patients are denied medical care because their illncsi falls below the cutoff line is uncertais Media coverage politically savvy protests and clever use of human-interestories by opponents could undermine existing i: Call for Revelation For all of his chest beating Chrysler's Lee Iacocca seems to be talking out of the other side of his mouth When he says that we should buy American cars and protect American jobs by placing high tariffs on Japanese imports he really isn't serious After all 20 percent of Ihis product line is imported from Japan it just has American names slapped on it The Chrysler Corp owns stock in Mitsubishi Motors in Japan The American Motors Eagle Talon and the Plymouth Laser are both nothing but a Mitsubishi Eclipse The Eagle Summit and the Dodge Colt are really Mitsubishi cars ' If Mr Iacocca wants to fight the Japanese imports then he should sell off the interest in Mitsubishi and bring the money home in the form of new plants for new safer reliable and less expensive (not cheap) cars Maybe if he had to buy his cars like the rest of us instead of getting them free every six months he would do something realistic about financing ' Medicaid coverage to the uninsured poor will be paid by the poor people who are now getting full Medicaid services IOU — 4""'—'44-U- $ Rationing 13U AMI Ktrf1 VC C Tribune Readers' Opinions Lee's Bluffing Health-Car- e into an insurance fund to provide for them Is rationing Justified as part of this comprehensive plan? Its Oregon supporters make a strong case that it is Covert rationing exists now they point out because so many people below the federal poverty line don't get any Medicaid services and have no insur- ance coverage Providing the most benefi- cial kinds of medical care to all of the poor is fairer and more socially useful than the current system of funding a full slate of services for some and nothing at all for others backers argue Even so it is worrisome that the cutoff line for health services is to be moved up or down every two years depending on state tax revenues and other appropriations Oregon has developed an unusual pub tic consensus supporting the plan Rut most of its backers will not be directly affected by the rationing It is a fair criticism that most of the price for expanding 40 play-or-p- A9 is being set up that would require employers to provide health insurance for all employees who work more than 175 hours a week or be assessed a payroll tax to go The Public Forum ' March 4 1992 Wednesday Oregon Provides Nation a Glimpse at lii ' commrcrAny The Salt Lake Tribune 1o - e L41 - t k---- 1:i':''''''s---- - fEPUUCAN A TAX BILL - -- : 0rtf 61945g -:t :2 't tl Vositel 1 1 i - 0 SOT '- - -ig At t -- - DEMOCRATS Poor Children Need Tax Refund By Marian Wright Edelman FOR THE WASHINGTON POST — The rapidly WASHINGTON emerging "conventional wisdom" in Washington is that a modest tax e cut for families won't make much of a dent in the recession But it still can make a big difference for millions of American families with children by establishing a refundable tax credit for children — one that would ensure that no child is left behind by reducing federal ine come tax liability for families and providing a tax refund to families with earnings too low to pay income taxes All of the core elements of a tax relief measure already have been placed on the table by the president and key congressional leaders The challenge now is to pull these pieces together into a focused initiative that targets help to those Americans hardest hit by changes in the economy and in government policies during the past two decades — low- - and families with children President Bush's tax plan focuse tax relief on es families with children by calling for an increase in the personal exemption for dependent children In its details the president's proposal is very badly targeted — an increase in the personal exemption would provide the greatest benefits to families at the top of the income scale who least need help and would give nothing to families struggling middle-incom- middle-incom- well-crafte- d middle-incom- e middle-incom- low-inco- who have been battered most by the nation's economic problems But President Bush's proposal does have the virtue of recognizing that it is families with children who most need help In the Senate Finance Committee Chairman has imLloyd Bentsen on the Bush proved proposal advocating a children's tax credit Because it is not refundable the Bentsen credit still would not help families with modest earnings — families with wages below about $15000 a year But it would eliminate the other inequities inherent in the personal exemption by providing the same amount of relief to all the families above that level who owe federal income taxes The tv measure on the other hand is not targeted on families with children and is only temporary but it does add one essential feature of tax relief: refundability The plan ties a temr cut in federal inporary come taxes to a percentage of Social Security payroll taxes paid by workers The credit's refundabillty ensures that even workers in e e or jobs would receive some help (although in many cases less than the maximum credit) under the plan The simplest fairest and most effective vehicle for pulling the best of these competing proposals together is a refundable tax credit for children A refundable children's credit would reach those Americans who have lost the most economic House-passe- d two-yea- low-wag- part-tim- WO-perfamil- y ground—from 1973 to 1990 the median income of families with children fell by 6 percent while that of families without children rose by 11 percent- It also should draw support from across the political spectrum Most important a refundable children's credit is fair Under the president's plan to increase the personal exemption by $500 a family with one child and an income above $100000 would get $155 The same family with an income of $30000 would get $75 and one with an income below $15000 would get nothing Far fairer woull be a refundable tax credit that treats every child alike helping the middle class and the poor at least as much as the affluent rather than less A refundable credit of $225 to $300 per child would give American families more help than the Bush' plan and could be structured to spend about the same amount as the Bentsen and House of Repre-- 1 sentatives credits With Congress considering an overall tax package that costs as much as $100 billion over five years inclusion of a refundable' children's credit still would leave ample room for other priority tax measures Going into a crucial election - year America's families are' watching waiting and hoping that ' we will leave no child behind - Marian Edelman is president of the Children's Defense Fund Din t Spring Forward Daylight Saving Time is coming soon whether we like it or not Time change is advantageous to very few people I doubt that it's the decision of a majority of the people in our state to change the time I fail to see why grown-umature adults need to adjust clocks making long days even longer I live in a farming community The farmers that I have talked to prefer morning hours to do their chores The farmers' wives dislike having to warm supper over at 10 pm Parents have difficulty getting their childreu to settle down at night when it is still light outside I don't remember ever getting to vote on the change It seems like a few people for whatever reason have made a decision that affects every one of us unless we move to p - Arizona or another Mountain Standard Time state Isn't there some way we can just stay on regular time? Wouldn't it be refreshing to simplify this one thing? Everything is already so complicated in life It's time to simplify times JANEEN HARE Meadow c i ONE DAY CAMERA CLEARANCE 7999 2999 Olympus' GO 35mm camera model has a built-iReg 3999This ct flIsh and a Infinity' S 35mm camera Reg 9999 Bad pictures are a thing of the past n this lens for easy operation focus-fre- e 5999 28999 Olympus Superzoom 330 35mm camera F449999 This rodel allows you to get as close Pentae PC313 35mm camera Reg 8999 pictures A gum-foc- compact model that takes superb and auto-filhandling as you want with its power zoom lens also ceatures auto focus and auto flash 6999 Olympus Trip AF Super QD h camera Reg 13999 This high-tec- MI quantities are limited and all items tVr may not be available at some stores is 1 loaded with great features including data imprint and auto-foc- r2J7 4 I mkmi Shop all gores Monday through Saturday order by phone: With your 1CM1 charge account 10--9 (except Salt Lake Dm ntomr Ogden and ZCM111: Saul 579-666eisevihere in Utah and in the US In Salt Lake i I 1 with handling camera auto-fil- auto-foc- f 10-7- ): |
