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Most Read Stories
Police accuse bank robbery suspect of gobbling up note (with dashcam video)
Victim of beating in Kent last week is declared dead at Akron hospital
Dad accused of forcing son into field, killing him
Man found dead in North Akron home is identified
Can DNA tests free ex-Akron captain?
Browns' roster nearly devoid of consistent players
Coventry man killed in crash at I-77 ramp
Review: You've never seen 'Sound of Music' like this
Blogs:
Pets:
Cat-loving chihuahua suckles seven abandoned kittens
The Heldenfiles:
Friday Night Notebook
Patrick McManamon:
Browns vs. Lions live …
Akron Zips:
Akron trounces Howard to reach .500
Tribe Matters:
Seven players added to Tribe’s 40-man roster
Cleveland Browns:
Robiskie, Harrison inactive
Kent State Sports:
Kent State blown out in second half, loses to Temple 47-13
Cleveland Cavaliers:
Gameblog: Cavs vs. Philadelphia 76ers
Buckeye Blogging:
OSU – Michigan college football rivals meet in Baghdad
Varsity Letters:
Four area football teams play tonight
All Da King's Men:
The Sunday Sanity Challenge
Blog of Mass Destruction:
Will Health Care Reform Pass?
Akron Law Café:
Health Care Financing Reform: (69) The Brookings Institute Study on "Bending the Curve" – Four General Strategies
See Jane Style:
Vintage Chic
Car Chase:
TIME TO GET YOUR COLLECTOR CARS WINTERIZED
Let's Talk Real Estate:
Silverdome Potentially SOLD!
Ohio Travels with Betty:
George is looking for a Thanksgiving buffet in Akron.
Sound Check:
Steely Dan Plays "The Royal Scam" at E.J. Thomas Hall
HRLite House:
A Random Rant on Testing
Akron Gamer:
Nintendo's Mario endures even as games come and go
Published on Thursday, Aug 21, 2008
Health care in crisis
Heath insurance companies' CEOs had an average income of $8.7 million in 2006, while 8.7 million children went without health care. This Labor Day, 1,138,000 in Ohio will be celebrating without health care, worrying that something will happen to them or their loved ones.
Even those who are lucky enough to have insurance must face rising premiums and co-pays and the very real possibility that they will lose their coverage altogether.
There is no reason why, in the richest country on the planet, so many people should live without health care. Millions more are losing it every year, while insurance companies rake in record profits.
However, too many of our elected officials have pursued policies that have worsened, rather than alleviated, the pain for working people. It is time to develop a health-care policy that works for all.
We need a health-care system that reins in out-of-control costs that are devastating working families and delivering untold riches to CEOs. We need to protect the benefits people have won, and ensure that everyone in this great country has access to care for themselves and their families.
We need to elect leaders in November who will stand by America's working people and will help fix our nation's broken health-care system. We can, and we must, turn around America.
John D. Wagner
Executive secretary treasurer
Tri County Regional Labor Council, AFL-CIO
Akron
The mayor's sewer plan
just another scheme
I just can't take it anymore. The mayor of Akron has come up with a scheme to get rid of our unionized sewer department, which just won an award, to allegedly help our poor students.
He touts a program in Kalamazoo, Mich., as an example. That program is being done with private money, not taxpayers'.
The mayor can, if he wants to, come up with a similar program by asking for money from his wealthy friends who made millions off the backs of the taxpayers of the city of Akron. What kind of deal has he made with the super-rich who want to take over our public utilities?
Where are our City Council people hiding? These rubber-stampers will walk in lockstep behind this person who claims to want the best for the citizens of Akron. I say, show me the money trail and we will see nothing but a well-organized plot to skin the property owners of the city.
David P. Reymann
Akron
A vote for McCain,
a vote for more Bush
People all over America have lost their homes, lost their jobs, and gasoline is so costly you can't afford to go to work or look for a job. Groceries have doubled or tripled in price. School buses can't afford take your kids to school. Your kids can't afford to go to college.
You ask yourselves why this is happening to us? Two words: George Bush. A war-monger, sit-back-and-do-absolutely-nothing, so-called president for eight years.
According to some polls, your next president will be John McCain. What in the world are you thinking? Oh, you think he will lower your taxes, make gas 10 cents a gallon, give you a home, fill your bank account, keep killing our boys in Iraq, and everything will be just great?
Sure, John McCain was a prisoner in Vietnam for years, but so were a lot of soldiers. And a lot of them died there. Yes, McCain has been a senator for years, but did he do all that much that made your life easier?
And he's almost 72 years old. Can he remember what he had for breakfast yesterday? And the biggest thing of all is he agrees with almost everything George Bush stands for.
McCain states he will do things to make your life better — with what? This country is nine trillion dollars in the red.
You can't run your household with no money. Of course John McCain will raise taxes and anything else he can think of. If you think you are poor now, just wait. You ain't seen nothing yet.
So if you want this kind of life for another four years, go ahead and vote for John McCain.
Jean Neel
Stow
Feed Cooey until
he bursts — literally
Richard Cooey too fat to be executed? Doesn't anyone see the prison system's agenda?
Frustrated by the amount of time Cooey has spent on death row, prison officials have decided to overfeed him until he bursts. Hey, warden — two words — Weight Watchers.
Bill Piurkowsky
Tallmadge
Doctor-owned hospital
follows the money
The recent column on doctor- owned hospital facilities (''Beware of doctor-owned hospital,'' Aug. 15) hit the mark. But there is more to the story than health-care costs.
New buildings, either planned or in the process of being built, are springing up in every area where a pool of workers with good health insurance resides. Three facilities are in development in Twinsburg, and several more are planned along state Route 8. That's five new facilities within a few miles of Cuyahoga Falls General Hospital, which, we've been told, will eventually close due to the lack of a supporting population of patients.
Perhaps a better explanation is the lack of a population of patients with good health insurance. These new facilities do nothing but bring wealth to the few over the long term (physicians and developers), while providing temporary benefits to others (construction workers). All the while, they extract wealth from the many in the form of exorbitant fees.
Spending tax dollars on roads and sewers to subsidize these facilities borders on the absurd. Once again, public money is given to those who need it least. The businesses that bring wealth to the many in the community are left with nothing. The end result is the closing of other facilities, empty buildings and the deterioration of existing roads and services.
Once again, we are left to hear how there are no tax dollars available for deserving projects and services. The ''for rent'' signs go up on older buildings while we occupy another patch of greenspace. The community must find a better way.
Greg Gantzer
Cuyahoga Falls
Health care in crisis
Get the full article here.
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