

Saturday's letters to the editor

5:51 PM, Oct. 4, 2013  |  Comments
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Health care changes are posing problems

As a vet, I don't need to sign up for the Affordable Health Care coverage. However, I did have my own insurance that I paid for out of pocket before I was accepted into the VA system. I bought the bare minimum insurance, aka catastrophic, with a high deductible and a $50 co-pay for all of my visits to my doctor. My insurance didn't cover a whole lot as far as doctor visits. I have a balance for the parts of the office visits that were not covered under my insurance, but Florida Blue had prescription coverage, which is all I really needed.

Now, let's take away the VA part of this equation. If I just had my insurance, which I was told I could keep, I was paying for bare coverage. Now, let's put the ACA into this equation. Today I received a letter from Florida Blue stating that my insurance plan would no longer be available due to the changes in the ACA. On Jan. 1, my plan would change to BlueOptions Essential. My monthly insurance payments would increase 200 percent. And due to the ACA, my plan will now have to include maternity/newborn care, pediatric dental and vision coverage, etc.

I am 41 years old and have no plans on getting pregnant. I'm not quite sure how this ACA is helping this middle-class mother of two who, by the way, is not eligible for Medicaid and wouldn't take it even if I were.


Pink campaign makes this writer see red

Painting everything in Tallahassee pink (including some people) was a commendable awareness effort. I would like to comment about this campaign in a positive nature.

First, families that know about cancer (who doesn't?) but are cancer free don't need a pink campaign to make them aware of it. Second, people who have cancer don't need a pink campaign to remind them of it. Third, and most important, if the money spent painting the town pink (including the Democrat) were spent on "action" instead of "awareness," that money would be more effectively spent.

I believe a pink town says a lot, but grossly misses the point. The point being financing more scientific research, instead of telling most people what they already know. Again we've confused the cart and the horse.

That's not what made America great.


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