Health care prediction

In a Trib news story on New Year’s Day, leaders of national security operations acknowledged serious lapses that led to a near disaster for a jetliner headed to Detroit on Christmas Day. I predict that on or about New Year’s Day 2020, the Trib will carry articles about the lapses in the U. S. health care system that was supposedly reformed and fine-tuned by a series of legislative acts beginning in 2010.

I project in 10 years:

* The health care system under government direction will be marked by a cold indifference and lack of innovation.

* Costs will have exceeded original forecasts. Cost overruns will necessitate care limitations under scientifically determined guidelines.

* Cost overruns will have required new taxes and contributed to exploding federal budget deficits. The result will be a weakened economy, declining international confidence in the dollar and diminishing economic opportunity for America’s youth.

At that point, I believe, elite believers in state control will be asking how Congress can modify and expand government control of health care to fix it.

John Pisciotta

Waco

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Rarely does one see our politicians working over the holidays, but this is what the Senate did during a portion of their Christmas holiday last year. Their selfless act put us closer to a nationalized health care system.

During this time, I noted a number of positive health care-related news stories. One TV story about Japan’s nationalized health system, touted it as the most efficient and economically stable world health care model.

This fanned my curiosity, and upon further investigation, I learned that in Japan, certain incurable diseases, such as cystic fibrosis, are not included in the medical expense assistance programs. So, Japan’s system is economically stable because they don’t include treatment of certain irreversible diseases. This raises some pertinent questions:

Can we expect the same with our own nationalized system when it goes in the red like other government-run programs, such as Social Security and Medicare? When the money runs out, how will these health panels justify the added expense of the chronically ill, elderly, nonviable newborn and those with irreversible diseases? Will it become easier to deny care to the incurable?

Personally, I wish this nationalized health care dream as proposed by the majority party was just a nightmare.

George Harvey

Woodway

Missing dog spooked

New Years Eve is a great time to gather with family and friends to bid farewell to the old and welcome in the new. Many residents celebrate by shooting fireworks in their yard, and I’m all for supervised firework displays. But it can have disastrous and sorrowful results, as the fireworks apparently spooked our beloved 10-year-old female tri-colored Collie, Paddy, who must have become so frightened New Years Eve that she jumped the fence at our Castle Heights home and hasn’t been seen since.

She stands 24 inches high and weighs 60 pounds. If anyone has seen our Paddy, please call (254) 756-1880.

LaNelle Gallant

Waco