Hearts go out for Haiti

What an immense and horrible tragedy the Haitian people have suffered! Truly, all our hearts should go out to all those affected, especially the deceased and the survivors. May God bring them peace.

In a similar vein, we all have a role to play in mitigating this tragedy. Many already are through acts of charity, while loaning their time, talent and treasure. As public officials, you have a role to play by not just helping those in need, but also by not making matters worse. Certainly, sending Haitians here in Florida back to Haiti during this horrendous time would make matters worse.

Consequently, I strongly urge all public officials in positions of influence concerning repatriation of Haitian refugees to avoid repatriating them back to Haiti during this time. Thank you for your kind attention.

Bill Myers

Wildwood

Insurance discounts should be applied equally

During the last quarter of 2009, my wife encountered a medical issue requiring emergency surgery, and a subsequent eight-day hospital stay for recovery. She is one of thousands locally enrolled in the Blue Cross Blue Shield insurance program offered through her employment. The hospital billed Blue Cross Blue Shield $47,129.67 for the eight-day stay. Blue Cross Blue Shield leveraged their combined customer enrollment, to reduce their bill to $2,682.67, a whopping 94.3 percent discount, leaving the patient whose enrollment was used to negotiate the 94.3 percent discount with no similar leverage to negotiate a similar discount for their portion of the billing.

This preferential corporate discounting illustrates how corporate America uses Main Street America to their advantage when paying, then throws the same Main Street American, their customer whose collective enrollment they used for their discount under the bus. This is the same corporate Blue Cross Blue Shield that devalued the same enrollment numbers by raising insurance premiums on their enrollees by 14 percent for the current enrollment period.

Question: If Blue Cross Blue Shield can leverage its enrollment numbers to negotiate a 94.3 percent discount from the hospital when they're paying, then how can those same enrollment numbers result in a 14 percent premium increase on individuals when their collecting premiums? This question falls at the feet of those Hernando county school district officials responsible for negotiating insurance premiums on behalf of the employees and Hernando county taxpayers. Perhaps a homework assignment regarding the negotiating value afforded in numbers would be a good place to start. It's time for the school district to sharpen their negotiating skills, and Hernando county taxpayers to raise their collective voices, and demand the blue light discount special be applied equally, not just to a chosen few.

Jim Gries

Weeki Wachee