Larry Alt: McCain doesn't get it on health care

Larry Alt  —  11/01/2008 6:22 am

Pain and suffering build empathy and I really empathize with you, Sen. McCain, when I see videos of the five years of brutal torture you suffered in Vietnam. For nearly 11 years, I've battled Parkinson's disease, a progressive, incurable disease which has increasingly slurred my speech, impaired my mobility, and ruined my handwriting and typing, making it difficult to be understood. Like millions of others with this often-studied but still mysterious disease. I'll probably never know why I got it. It caught up with me two years ago and, at 57, I had to retire.

You're used to being the underdog, so you never give up the fight. You're a war hero running for president. I greatly respect you as someone who never gives up and as a military hero, but I can't support you for president.

You've often said you choose to "trust your senses." Despite the predictions you'll lose, you cite the enthusiasm at your campaign events. The strength of conviction you and Gov. Sarah Palin share seems to have deteriorated into an arrogant refusal to consider that maybe it's your plan, rather than your personalities, that's not being bought by the public.

Another famous military officer, Gen. George Custer, led his troops into history at Little Big Horn more than a century ago. He was considered heroic, and the battlefield was named after him despite the fact that he lost. In 1970, a young Dustin Hoffman starred as a 102-year-old man, looking back on his life in "Little Big Man." This film was one indication of the awakening of Americans to the warts in our history. By that time, Custer's tragic end was attributed to his arrogant refusal to believe he could be defeated by the Sioux. Sen. McCain, I hope you look at the lack of knowledge and arrogance that is playing a part in your stand on many of the vital issues in this campaign.

You say Sen. Barack Obama is radical, but it's your health insurance plan that's "radical." You have admitted you will tax employees on the employer-provided "contributions" to an employee's health insurance.

A quote from the Wall Street Journal: "What many may not realize is that the federal government already 'spends' roughly $300 billion to $400 billion through the tax code to encourage people to pay for their health care through employer-sponsored health insurance. This subsidy takes the form of the exclusion for employer-sponsored health insurance from both income and payroll taxes."

Translation: The government could collect another $300-$400 billion in taxes from individual taxpayers if it closed a loophole and taxed employees' "fringe benefits" like the employer portion of their health insurance.

The WSJ article goes on: "Consider homeowners and auto insurance policies. Do these cover routine spending on cleaning the gutters or tuning up a car? The health insurance subsidy encourages people to buy bigger policies that cover more, and leads to greater health care spending. Moreover, lower deductibles and coverage of routine spending dulls consumers' sensitivity to price."

Translated: If you give people better health insurance that costs more but pays better benefits, they'll just waste the money. It's a sick analogy.

I had one really expensive medical procedure for Parkinson's disease in 2004. Called deep brain stimulation, it cost more than $150,000 and was affordable only because my insurance covered all but $6,000. What makes DBS surgery so expensive is the necessary precision. What makes it unusual is that you are fully awake for the nine hours it takes, and the neurosurgeon drills two holes in your skull in order to run two electrodes. S/he then runs the wires under your skin to your ears. Two weeks later you're back for more surgery. This time, they "put you under" and when you awaken three hours later, you can feel the two pacemakers under your skin near your chest. The neurosurgeon has also run wires from the pacemakers to the two in your brain. Two weeks later, you're back again to flip the switch that turns it on. If you're lucky, the electrodes were placed in exactly the right spot and you prepare for the final step: Over the next year, they try to find a precise setting for the electric currents.

I was lucky -- my surgery worked. It's made a huge difference. It's not a cure-all, but it buys you precious time.

Does any thinking human being believe anyone would go through all that just because it's covered by insurance?

You've said you're not George W. Bush, Sen. McCain, but your tax plan is his plan, which provides the highest tax cuts to the CEOs, etc. (Obama would give breaks to individuals and small businesses earning less than $250,000.) Under your plan, the CEOs now blamed for the greed that led to our current financial crisis would also collect their personal income tax cut on top of their corporate tax cut.

You asked why any company would choose the U.S. with its 35 percent corporate rate over Ireland's 11 percent rate. You've said the strength this country has is its work force, yet you don't see a way to "sell that"? Instead of supporting the creation of a highly skilled work force by supporting jobs and education like Obama did in listing his three priorities in the debate, you were at a loss for ideas. You've forgotten how to dream of a better life for everyone.

There are many other things that I don't have space to put in this letter. I'll just mention Franklin Roosevelt's saying: "We have nothing to fear but fear itself." I'm not going to vote against you, Sen. McCain. I'm voting for Sen. Obama, whose campaign says, "Yes, we can!" I believe his vision for the future is as clear as FDR's, JFK's and Reagan's. We as a nation have such difficult problems. We need such a vision. By investing in our people, we can free ourselves of dependency on foreign oil, re-establish the supremacy we had in the automobile and electronics industries, and play a crucial role in developing the new Internet while accomplishing full employment and trade surpluses -- and cure disease -- as well as securing our country. Yes, we can!

Larry Alt is a resident of Prairie du Sac.

Larry Alt  —  11/01/2008 6:22 am