Re: your July 3 article, "Paring back to make a profit":
In this article, state Sen. Elaine Alquist, chairwoman of the Senate Health Committee said, "There was an implicit good faith agreement that things would get better. ..."
It is difficult for me to imagine a more completely and absolutely naive statement than that. The one "good faith agreement" one can count on from a for-profit enterprise is that ie till make every attempt to maximize its profits
For 30 years, I managed health care delivery in both hospitals and nursing homes, and in both for-profit and not-for-profit enterprises. I can tell you uneqivocally that the for-profit facilities are tempted to shave costs and increase revenues at all times.
That is, of course, true of all for-profit businesses in a capitalistic economic system, and it works quite well in most American enterprises. However, it is an utter failure in the health care delivery. Until we remove all for-profit enterprises from our health system, we will never realize the potential quality of care and cost-containment that the recently enacted national plan envisions.
William Merit True, II,
Port Hueneme
Can someone explain your e mail system to me? Smythe, my favorite columnist is not listed among province columnists--whose then?--and discovering how to write a letter to the editor is a week's work. pstp
October 27, 2010
Illegal immigration
Thank you Christa Jackson for your article on this subject. I thought the Star Free Press would never publish anything about what you said. Because it is a majority of Spanish people hired by the paper. And I have said for years that it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out what would cure our problems here in California. Send all the illegals back to Mexico. And over the years, no one wants to talk about it. Everybody is afraid because of the Spanish vote. If it goes on like it has, California will belong to Mexico. I have gone to the Rose Bowl Parade almost every year and never again. Last year it was almost all Mexicans watching it and out of six floats, two were from Mexico. And out of nowhere came the huge Mexican flags…..Viva La Mexico!!!! 100’s of Mexican flags hidden under something and up they came! I didn’t see anyone selling the American flags….just Mexican flags. This wasn’t filmed on T.V.. Even the T.V. people are afraid of touching the subject. My husband fought in Viet Nan….What for? For us to give it all away to Mexico? Send our students over to Mexico when our schools fail due to the over crowding of Mexican students. When they come back, maybe they will be bilingual and will be able to find a job here. Turn on your radio. Almost all the stations have been taken over by Spanish music and Spanish talk radio. I have thought for years that the illegal immigration problem is a much bigger problem than the war in Iraq. However, all our politicians have been afraid to address the REAL problem. The politicians are all afraid of losing the Spanish vote and there popularity. If this all continues America will become Mexico. Joanne Davis