Corporate shell game, punish abuser, praise for writer

Health care proposal corporate shell game

In his Jan. 18 column, Al Hubbard claims he and his buddies know how to save Hoosier families $2,500 "on average" every year. Their magic trick is to force Indiana hospital prices down to the national average.

I don't believe him for a minute. Forcing hospitals to cut their prices would make health insurance companies and the employers who hire them both richer, but the idea that an average of $2,500 would trickle down to each and every Indiana family is absurd.

Perhaps Indiana's prices are higher because the quality of our care is higher than average. Hubbard never addresses that possibility. He specifically attacks Parkview Health, which has kept me alive four times. Parkview gets ripped by politicians for having a large financial reserve, but I bet that came in handy when COVID-19 erupted. I sure don't want to be in a hospital that can't afford excellent equipment and nurses.

Hubbard is the chairman of Hoosiers for Affordable Healthcare. This is no grassroots organization of middle-class moms and dads living paycheck to paycheck. Its corporate board is a collection of Republican and corporate power players.

The quality of hospital care in this country is already amazingly great – if you have good insurance. What is not great is the insurance system itself. The Affordable Care Act was a step in the right direction. As a grateful senior, however, I believe it is shameful we do not have something like Medicare for all. I realize there would be challenges to maintaining top quality with universal health care, but slashing hospitals' income is obviously a prescription for quality decline.

If Hubbard gets his way and Indiana hospital prices are forced below those in, say, Ohio, then you can expect to see Buckeyes for Affordable Healthcare to pop up immediately. It's part of the grand corporate strategy of pitting states against one another to see who can offer corporations the biggest incentives to build or stay within their borders. We see it in deregulation, in corporate tax breaks, in anti-union laws and now in attacks on our health care.

This whole thing smells like one more dead red herring corporate America is pushing to reduce our quality of life – even our length of life – while increasing corporate profits. It stinks.

Evan Davis

Fort Wayne

Cruelty toward dog should spark outrage

This letter of outrage is in response to the article "18-year-old accused of animal abuse (Jan. 13)."

I called Animal Care and Control to make a donation toward Sapphire's care and was told she had been put down. This news caused me to be more incensed.

That the accused who allegedly stomped on and beat the poor dog with a bat is walking free on his own recognizance is unbelievable. Animal cruelty at this level is now a felony in Indiana. Why should he be allowed to roam the streets after his torture of Sapphire?

I have zero tolerance for child or animal cruelty. It's time the court system stands up and gives just punishment to people like Demarion K. White. At least charge it as the felony it is now that the dog is dead. Put him in prison for five years.

Christopher Snider

Fort Wayne

Praise for writer

A very good article by Fred McKissack on Martin Luther King ("Living his dream," Jan. 15) – best I have ever read.

George McCowan

Fort Wayne