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To the editor:
My wife and I went to our family doctor this morning (Nov. 14, 2012) for test and an examination that she needs before her hip surgery at the end of this month. While there, he told her that, though he hates to have to do it, after Dec. 31, 2013, he will no longer be working with nor accepting patients that are on Medicare.
He said that he has made this decision because the new reporting and claim requirements taking effect in 2014 for Medicare will involve so much additional reporting and record-keeping that he would have to hire an additional person for that purpose only, and that he just can’t afford it. He also said that, beginning January 2014, he will need to raise his office visit minimum charges to about twice that of the current rate.
I assume that this rate increase is due to the loss of income from his current Medicare patients. This increase, I believe, will have an adverse effect on his low- and middle-income patients that may be struggling meeting the current rate.
Our doctor is a young family man who, I believe, deeply cares about all of his patients and their well-being. However, he is also a businessman who needs to stay profitable in order to stay in business. I can’t say that I blame him even a little bit for having made this decision.
So here we are, off looking for a doctor who will take folks on Medicare. If we don’t come up with one, I guess we will just have to get in line at the emergency room.
No death panels for old folks are required with Obamacare as this should get it done. Some folks might call this the Obama effect.
Harold “Bob” Fisher
Sharpsburg
America’s decline reflects diseased state of church
To the editor:
In the book of I Kings, the writer (whom scholars call the Deuteronomist) describes a scene in which the prophets of Baal appeal to their god for a supernatural demonstration of power. All of their dancing, shouting, crying, praying and self-mutilation go for naught, however, for the coveted demonstration never happens.
As they lay exhausted and bleeding, Elijah taunted them. “Shout louder,” he told them. “Maybe he’s thinking, relieving himself, or traveling! Maybe he’s sleeping, and you have to wake him!”
I thought of that passage when all the machinations of the “Christian” right failed to win the presidency for Mitt Romney.
Did their God not hear them? Or did they not hear God?
The anonymous writer of the Old Testament books of I and II Chronicles penned these familiar words.
“If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land.”
In other words, the well-being of a nation correlates with the purity and holiness — or the lack thereof — of the church.
I respectfully suggest that America’s precipitous moral decline, and its impending economic and social collapse, is because the church likes to quote that passage but has not done as it instructs. To say it another way, the sickness of America today reflects the diseased state of the church.
And contrary to what the “Christian” right hoped, a victory by Romney would have done nothing to fix that.
G.F. Miller
Hagerstown
Non-partisan elections would be good for West Virginia
To the editor:
At the urging of a 70 percent advisory referendum vote by the citizens of Hagerstown, Md., those city officials now are moving forward to amend their city charter to conduct all future elections on a non-partisan basis.
Non-partisan elections help voters to more fully reap the benefits of the salvation of liberty, the heart of the nation and the hope of our republic.
May the West Virginia Legislature go and do likewise.
Del. Larry D. Kump
Falling Waters, W.Va.
My wife and I went to our family doctor this morning (Nov. 14, 2012) for test and an examination that she needs before her hip surgery at the end of this month. While there, he told her that, though he hates to have to do it, after Dec. 31, 2013, he will no longer be working with nor accepting patients that are on Medicare.
He said that he has made this decision because the new reporting and claim requirements taking effect in 2014 for Medicare will involve so much additional reporting and record-keeping that he would have to hire an additional person for that purpose only, and that he just can’t afford it. He also said that, beginning January 2014, he will need to raise his office visit minimum charges to about twice that of the current rate.
I assume that this rate increase is due to the loss of income from his current Medicare patients. This increase, I believe, will have an adverse effect on his low- and middle-income patients that may be struggling meeting the current rate.
Our doctor is a young family man who, I believe, deeply cares about all of his patients and their well-being. However, he is also a businessman who needs to stay profitable in order to stay in business. I can’t say that I blame him even a little bit for having made this decision.
So here we are, off looking for a doctor who will take folks on Medicare. If we don’t come up with one, I guess we will just have to get in line at the emergency room.
No death panels for old folks are required with Obamacare as this should get it done. Some folks might call this the Obama effect.
Harold “Bob” Fisher
Sharpsburg
America’s decline reflects diseased state of church
To the editor:
In the book of I Kings, the writer (whom scholars call the Deuteronomist) describes a scene in which the prophets of Baal appeal to their god for a supernatural demonstration of power. All of their dancing, shouting, crying, praying and self-mutilation go for naught, however, for the coveted demonstration never happens.
As they lay exhausted and bleeding, Elijah taunted them. “Shout louder,” he told them. “Maybe he’s thinking, relieving himself, or traveling! Maybe he’s sleeping, and you have to wake him!”
I thought of that passage when all the machinations of the “Christian” right failed to win the presidency for Mitt Romney.
Did their God not hear them? Or did they not hear God?
The anonymous writer of the Old Testament books of I and II Chronicles penned these familiar words.
“If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land.”
In other words, the well-being of a nation correlates with the purity and holiness — or the lack thereof — of the church.
I respectfully suggest that America’s precipitous moral decline, and its impending economic and social collapse, is because the church likes to quote that passage but has not done as it instructs. To say it another way, the sickness of America today reflects the diseased state of the church.
And contrary to what the “Christian” right hoped, a victory by Romney would have done nothing to fix that.
G.F. Miller
Hagerstown
Non-partisan elections would be good for West Virginia
To the editor:
At the urging of a 70 percent advisory referendum vote by the citizens of Hagerstown, Md., those city officials now are moving forward to amend their city charter to conduct all future elections on a non-partisan basis.
Non-partisan elections help voters to more fully reap the benefits of the salvation of liberty, the heart of the nation and the hope of our republic.
May the West Virginia Legislature go and do likewise.
Del. Larry D. Kump
Falling Waters, W.Va.