toledoblade.com --

As the president of the Ohio State Medical Association, I want to thank The Blade for its recent series on the impact of health insurance on patient care.

The eight-month investigation and resulting series, "Not what the doctor ordered: How health-insurance plans shape patient treatment," does a very effective job of highlighting the problems that Ohio physicians and their patients face daily.

As a physician, I see firsthand the impact that unnecessary and arbitrary insurance restrictions have on quality patient care. In fact, your articles clearly illustrate for the public something that physicians have known for decades: heavy-handed cost control measures by insurers are having a negative impact on patient care.

Physicians are sensitive to the expense side of medicine. One reason is because, as business owners, we want to provide health coverage for our own employees and their families. However, we feel the same cost pressures as any other business. One difference is that we are in a better position than most other employers to truly understand how insurance company interference is affecting the quality of patient care.

That's why the OSMA's number-one priority is reining in the abuses of the health-insurance industry. We must fight to keep medical care between the patient and the physician and prevent insurance companies from interfering with this care.

Dr. Warren F. Muth

President
Ohio State Medical Association

Denial of preventive care fatal, costly error

Reading The Blade's recent series on health care brought back all the resentment I feel toward insurance companies in general and Anthem in particular. My husband, Dan Roman, worked hard his whole life. We had what we thought was good coverage through his employer.

When he turned 40, I suggested he have a complete physical. His parents had both died in their 40s, one from heart disease, one from cancer. I gave him a list of things to have done: PSA, EKG, colonoscopy, etc. The blood work was done and the colonoscopy was scheduled. We were then informed that Anthem would not pay for the test. They explained to us it was very expensive ($1,200 at that time) and they wouldn't cover it until he was 50, and only then if he had symptoms. I watched Katie Couric, after her husband died of colon cancer in his early 40s, tell people to get screened early. If only we had known. My husband died three years later from colon cancer that had spread to his liver.

Could someone please explain to me how it makes any sense, business or otherwise, for the insurance company to not pay the $1,200 for the test, but to happily fork out $850,000 for his surgery and subsequent treatment? It's a question I have been asking for four years now. Oh, yes, and in their infinite compassion, I was informed after Dan died that I could keep our insurance for a mere $800 a month.

Maybe they were hoping to kill me too.

Kimberly L. Roman

Harding Drive

No-cost health care impossible dream

Health insurance is not affordable because of a circle of contributing factors that perpetuate the upward spiral of costs. Historically, prices for goods and services have been kept in check by upward and downward market pressures in adherence to the laws of supply and demand. These laws were basically usurped with the advent of health insurance as we know it. In essence, an individual's insurance card has become their health-care credit card, with no spending limit and no balance due. Furthermore, it has spawned the notion that health care should be free. The thought of having a vehicle repaired at the shop free of charge is laughable, yet the general public expects that services rendered by highly skilled professionals who spent 10 years in training should come at no charge.

Imagine the premiums for auto insurance if carriers covered similar claims for vehicles. Maintenance such as oil changes and tune-ups would be covered for every vehicle. Throw in the "transmission transplant," and you get a feel for where auto insurance premiums would go.

Who's to blame? Health insurance carriers, health-care providers, consumers? The answer is all of the above. Each year, the medical claims that insurance companies pay increase. Also, government mandates require that more and more services be listed as covered benefits, thereby raising claims paid. U.S. health-care costs in 2007 equated to $7,439 per capita. Divide that number by 12 and multiply it by our 300 million citizens, add in the factor for next year's upward trend, and there's our hypothetical monthly premium. The number would astound you if it could fit on your calculator screen. We need to look at why health insurance is not affordable. Efforts to cut costs are a necessity, not acts of greed.

Joshua Rupli

Temperance, Mich.

Road crew's efficiency deserves applause

As the summer was nearing an end, I realized that the road crews were going to begin resurfacing Central Avenue from King Road to Reynolds Road. I began seeing the orange barrels, and to dread my daily commute. It was amazing how efficient the road crews were and, by working during the night, the job was painless. Kudos to the men and women who finished this job in record time without any delays.

Lisa Axonovitz

Hollow Creek Drive

Devil's always been in city business details

Regarding the Erie Street Market financing scam of making all transactions under $10,000, this practice has been around since the 1970s.

Most repairs at the Streets, Bridges and Harbor and Solid Waste departments were manipulated to easily go through City Council as either emergency measures or under the "$10,000 purchase rule," even if the same repair was just billed in pieces. Often this was done with no effort or desire for competitive bids, so that the job would go to a selected vendor.

Equipment purchases often have bid specifications built around one brand, as is done today - drive around the landfill sometime. Is Council acting as if they weren't aware of this, or do they not pay attention to these "small" bills?

Paul Clement

Holland

Council drags feet on exciting proposals

Last February, a major project was proposed for the development of a walkway along Swan Creek in downtown Toledo. The project, according to a Blade report, would include a pedestrian walkway along the creek, office space, homes, shops, and a waterfront promenade in the mixed-use development.

The company making the proposal was Tetra Tech of Pasadena, Calif. It planned to spend $300 million over the life of the project. This company has a proven track record of success with such projects, as they were the firm that designed the popular San Antonio River Walk.

In April, Mayor Carty Finkbeiner announced that Tetra Tech had offered to purchase 27 parcels of city-owned property for the proposed development, at an offering price of $4.2 million. The parcels would include the troubled Erie Street Market. As a part of the offer, Tetra Tech would have a year or so to do feasibility studies of the sites.

Toledo City Council's response to this exciting proposal was: "We'll get back to you on this one." It is now September, and it appears they are not even considering this offer. Instead, they choose to haggle over the expenditure of a paltry by comparison $80,000 that they claim was spent by the Finkbeiner administration on the Erie Street Market without obtaining proper administrative approval.

This is the type of minor-league thinking that has plagued city government for years. As I recall, it took them 10 years to make any meaningful decisions on the Marina District. Is it any wonder that there is so much vacant office space in downtown Toledo?

Dennis DiSalle

Maumee

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