HEALTH: Where’s care and compassion?
Case history: AB is a 56-year-old custodian with chronic back pain. In normal health, the rule of thumb is that we can lift 40 percent of our body weight; when injured, we can lift 10 percent....
View ArticleHEALTH: Free care is not the answer
Re: “Where’s care and compassion?” (letter, 3-20). The writer, a physician, sees the need for “universal free medical care.” Universal health insurance is not the answer to every problem. And universal...
View ArticleBUDGET: Medicaid money can help low-income
For more than 30 years, my wife and I and a loyal team of workers have farmed 20-plus acres along the Puyallup River. Our fields, with the first blooms of spring peeking into view, seem a long way from...
View ArticleMEDICINE: Physician, patient share role in controlling costs
Re: “When high-tech medicine costs more, it should deliver” (editorial, 3-22). While your editorial talks specifically about gynecological robotics, the larger point of contributing factors to...
View ArticleHEALTH: Retain funding for nurse-family program
The Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department and Board of Health are faced with a loss of revenue from federal Title XIX administrative match funds, a loss that affects services to vulnerable families in...
View ArticleHEALTH: Families need public health support
Re: “Family support centers could close due to funding cuts” (TNT, 3-21). Soon after I read the article, I was privileged to attend the second annual gathering of Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department...
View ArticleLAWS: There’s no need for gender neutrality
Global warming, terrorism, sequestration, immigration, civil liberties, a state budget with no money to properly support education, road repairs, health care, child services, etc. With all these real...
View ArticleMEDICAID: Co-payments aren’t a good answer
Re: “School funding without taxes sacrifices the poor” (editorial, 4-25). In an otherwise excellent editorial about the no-new-taxes Senate’s failure to fund programs for our most vulnerable, The News...
View ArticleHEALTH: Obamacare doomed to fail
It’s been three years since the Affordable Care Act was passed. The Democrats praised this legislation as the cure to our health-care system. President Obama and the Democratic leaders campaigned on...
View ArticleHEALTH CARE: Gerson blames the wrong party
Re: “The IRS scandal you don’t hear about: The Obamacare power grab” (Michael Gerson column, 5-26). In a fit of frustration, Gerson has, at least temporarily, given up making direct attacks on...
View ArticleHEALTH: Coverage can be burden for employers
I am so pleased to see the Obama administration recognized the potential job-killing effects of the Affordable Care Act’s employer mandate (TNT, 7-3). Many large corporations will continue to offer...
View ArticleHEALTH: Robocallers invent anti-Obamacare ‘facts’
I just listened to an “urgent” phone message decrying “Obamacare” and, among other things, claiming that the policy would require hiring “over 16,000 new IRS agents.” Goggling for that phrase led me...
View ArticleELECTION: Schlicher’s a leader on health care issues
Even before his appointment as state Senator in the 26th Legislative District, Nathan Schlicher had won national recognition for emergency room reforms that have become a national model – and are...
View ArticleCONGRESS: Enjoy summer and fear the fall
With the housing market, jobs, retail sales and construction on the rise; mortgage rates holding steady; and the annual deficit decreasing, I see reason for optimism. On the other side of the coin, I...
View ArticleELECTION: Schlicher is a balanced, caring leader
Having lived and worked in this community for 19 years helping people achieve the American dream through safe, affordable housing, I’ve had the pleasure of getting to know many of our local leaders....
View ArticleHEALTH: Republicans too late with cruel ‘solution’
All the whining about “Obamacare” is the Republican Party being scared to death that the general public will like it as the citizens in developed Europe enjoy their health care. The Republicans had...
View ArticleOBAMACARE: Is Murray still confident about law?
Re: “Implementing Obamacare” (TNT, 8-25). The front-page article dealt with exchanges that will begin to be available Oct. 1. I wonder if The News Tribune has tried contacting Sen. Patty Murray to get...
View ArticleHEALTH CARE: We need Medicare for All
Re: “Health care rollout will hit bumps as expected: (TNT, 8-29). I appreciate the article on health care written by Dr. Caroline Poplin. She outlined the complexity and cost of the Affordable Care Act...
View ArticleHEALTH CARE: For-profit system a national disgrace
National politics has completed its descent into spectacle over substance, one party extremist, the other craven and cowardly. Republicans work their followers into a lather over Obamacare,...
View ArticleHEALTH CARE: What promises won’t be kept?
Several articles in The News Tribune (9-15) touted the wonders of Obamacare, mentioning some adverse effects (such as employers reducing the number of full-time workers to avoid penalties), and...
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