Did anyone try to help the moose?

I refer to your article titled "Moose calf doesn't survive fall into pool" (Oct. 24).

The story starts out so beautifully describing a young, healthy moose finishing up the last bit of leftovers from someone's garden in Eagle River earlier in October.

I was horrified as I finished reading to learn that this same moose was discovered in someone's backyard pond in this same neighborhood early one morning, apparently stuck, desperate, drowning, dying.

Nowhere does the article mention any attempt was made to assist this moose. Please tell me the appropriate authorities were called and a humane effort was actually made on behalf of this poor moose.

-- Dori Starkey

Anchorage

Subscribers would finance plan

A government health insurance option won't cost the government or the public a dime. It will be fully funded by the subscribers to the plan. Many people erroneously think it is "socialized medicine" because it has the word "government" in it. It will not require anyone to join the plan -- it will merely be available for anyone to subscribe to, much like we do now with commercial health insurance policies.

Co-ops are neither robust enough to withstand the power of the health companies nor universal enough between states to be portable and work effectively. A government insurance option is the only approach that will effectively keep premiums competitive. It removes profit and marketing costs from the premium payments. By comparison, my health insurance premium has increased 216 percent over the past seven years, while the Anchorage Consumer Price Index for the same period was 15 percent! The former CEO of United Health was compensated $1.6 billion (yes, billion with a "B") for eight years' work! The current CEO's compensation is more than $700 million! Is this the way to spend premium dollars?

Please write Congress and demand a government-administered health insurance pool.

-- Tom Livingston

Anchorage

Medicare proposal flawed

Several readers have commented on my recent vote against a Democrat Medicare physician reimbursement proposal. While I fully support fixing the Medicare reimbursement rates for doctors, this proposal would have added a quarter trillion dollars to the record-high federal deficit without identifying a way to pay for it.

In addition to the huge cost, the bill would have stripped the reimbursement formula from Medicare without replacing it with a new one. This would leave to chance whether a new formula would be better or worse for doctors in the long run. The bill also would freeze Medicare reimbursement rates for the next decade. Reimbursement rates are currently so low that only 13 percent of providers in Anchorage are accepting Medicare patients. Freezing the rates for the next 10 years will do nothing to encourage future generations of doctors to enter the field of primary health care services.

It's also important to note that the legislation failed on a bipartisan vote, with 13 Democrats joining all Republicans in opposition. The bill would have further prolonged the access crisis facing Medicare patients, particularly in Alaska and rural America, while failing to provide doctors with any incentive to continue caring for our state's growing Medicare population.

-- U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski

Washington, D.C.

No reason to change clocks

Help make this fall perhaps the last time we Alaskans will suffer state-sponsored jet lag as our state government forces us to change our clocks to go on and off daylight saving time.

Unlike 1967, when Alaska began using DST, business communications are now conducted 24/7 and Alaska trades with the Pacific Far East, where DST is not observed. We even changed the Alaska Time Zone in 1983 to make Anchorage and the Railbelt region permanently one hour closer to the Lower 48 than we were prior to 1983.

DST is now an archaic law that has no compelling reason for its continued use in Alaska.

A bill to repeal DST in Alaska (HB 19) passed the state House and is now before the Senate. Please contact your state senator and urge him or her to support HB 19 -- the repeal of daylight saving time in Alaska.

-- Lynn Willis

Eagle River

And you wondered why she left ...

It is announced that Sarah Palin, while in office as governor of Alaska, got a $1.25 million retainer for the autobiography she and her ghostwriter are penning. If there's anyone out there who still doesn't know why Palin, shedding crocodile tears, resigned her job as governor, there's your answer.

-- Claudine Willis

Portland, Ore.

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