Readers write: Letters to the editor, August 10, 2017

Murkowski protected Alaskans with chronic lung disease

On behalf of the American Lung Association in Alaska, I thank Sen. Lisa Murkowski for standing up and protecting health care for Alaskans living with lung disease.

The Senate's health care bill would have harmed the millions of Americans who need health care as part of their daily battle against lung diseases including asthma, COPD and lung cancer and Murkowski was right to vote against it.
We are hopeful now that the Senate can work together in a bipartisan way to improve our nation's health care system and ensure all Americans have quality, affordable health care.

— Marge Stoneking, executive director,
American Lung Association in Alaska
Anchorage

Sullivan's bad management
on SAP costs taxpayers

According to Charles Wohlforth, (ADN, Aug. 7), in 2011 then-Mayor Dan Sullivan ordered new SAP computer software that was supposed to cost $10.6 million and go live in 2012. It still doesn't work and the cost is now over $81 million. Independent studies found the delays and exploding costs were caused by Sullivan's mismanagement.

Wohlforth's math indicates that our household's share of this debacle is $1,131.30. Thanks, Mayor Dan.

— John A Farleigh
Anchorage

Route changes are travesty

This letter addresses the removal of People Mover route No. 36 from West Anchorage.

It is a sad day for the city of Anchorage when the transit department gets to pick and choose who gets to ride and who is left to find their own way to get around town.

Signs on all the bus stops in West Anchorage announcing the closing of bus services Oct. 23 is a sad testament to the poor organization of the transit system.
Left out are people who need to get to work but have no car or are disabled and yet willing to carry on working instead of relying on government programs to support them. Left out are the elderly who can no longer drive, but still need to get to doctor appointments, go shopping and to church. Left out are the young people who want to travel the city for work, school or to see their friends.

Advertising the new and improved bus routes is offensive. It touts how wonderful it will be and what a great decision it was. This decision does not take into account the whole of the city and what is best for all citizens. It leaves out much needed services from Minnesota Drive west to the airport. The money spent on advertising and signs could have gone a long way in paying to keep route No. 36 viable, and the firm from out of state that did the survey, what was that cost?

We were told this change was made to promote ridership and increase it and to establish 15-minute wait times. But to do that in one part of the city and eliminate the west side, is not the answer to increasing ridership. The way to increase ridership is to increase service in all areas of town with better wait times. With more reliable service, more people would be attracted to and choose to take the bus, especially to the downtown area, where parking is so limited and costly.

We were also told budget cuts were the reasons for the closure of the route. A whole lot of money was spent to survey, promote and advertise these changes. These are poor excuses for completely changing a system that only needed to add 15 minutes wait times for two routes.

— Deborah Gadomski
Anchorage

Inaction is greatest health risk

The ACA has not been repealed (thank you, Sen. Murkowski), and we see the benefits that available coverage and many of the ACA provisions have for our patients daily. But the difference between stabilizing access to health insurance and improving our health care system is huge. In many ways, patients can be caught between dictates of their insurance plan, the costs of medications, and applicable laws. Let me give you an example of how we as providers are hobbled in our efforts to provide what we know is the best possible care.

On its website, CNBC's Bertha Coombs reported Aug. 5 that "major health insurance companies shrugged off political uncertainty over the future of the Affordable Care Act to take in more than $6 billion in profit in the second quarter. That figure was up by more than 29 percent from the same period last year."

I am an owner in a medium-size medical practice in Anchorage; the majority of our work is primary care. We have rising overhead costs (health insurance among them), and we have to watch our bottom line. At our recent quarterly board meeting, a topic was whether we could afford to continue to purchase Gardasil9 HPV vaccines to administer to eligible patients. The ACA laudably requires recommended vaccines be covered by insurance companies without a copay from the patient, but the amount we are reimbursed by some of those insurance companies is often less than our wholesale cost for Gardasil9, so we will lose money each time we vaccinate those covered patients with this valuable cancer-prevention vaccine.

Best practice recommends vaccinating "same day," on site, which is why we stock several (though not all) vaccines in our clinic. Patients who leave without the recommended vaccines are less likely to get them elsewhere. Being squeezed into losing money by insurance companies' low reimbursement, we may be forced into contributing to the already sad U.S. rates of vaccination against HPV disease and cancers. (Now, please reread that statement above about insurance companies' quarterly profits.)

To add to this irony, I am currently preparing a presentation about a topic I am passionate about: the scope of HPV diseases, HPV vaccines, recent information about their safety and efficacy, and how to encourage their increased use. The first generation HPV vaccine came out in 2006 for young girls and is now also recommended for young men, but unlike other countries we have not added it to the required school vaccines. As a result, our vaccination rate remains embarrassingly low: approximately 40 percent for young women, lower for young men. As a result, our populace is not enjoying the "herd immunity" seen in other developed countries (Australia, Scotland), with less HPV disease already and fewer HPV cancers expected soon in their highly vaccinated populations. We are not mercenaries; we want these diseases to disappear. And yet, we are watching political inaction, pharmaceutical costs and insurance company reimbursements combine to thwart Alaska in matching what other countries achieve.

This, Sens. Lisa Murkowski and Dan Sullivan, and Rep. Don Young, is just one example of what you can contribute to improving our health care system.

— Tina Tomsen, MD
Anchorage Women's Clinic
Anchorage

'Grandest' of all grand juries

Since Donald Trump entered the political arena and eventually became president, we have become all too familiar with hyperbole. Things are "big and beautiful," "phenomenal," "fantastic," "best ever," etc., etc.

I think I will try my luck at this technique. By now you have heard about Special Counsel Robert Mueller's latest move. A jury is now receiving documents and testimony concerning dealings with Russia and the trail of money. A jury, yes, and I hear it's going to be the grandest. Glad, so glad.

— Mary Navitsky
Anchorage

The views expressed here are the writers' own and are not necessarily endorsed by Alaska Dispatch News, which welcomes a broad range of viewpoints. To submit a letter under 200 words for consideration, email letters@alaskadispatch.com, or click here to submit via any web browser. Submitting a letter to the editor constitutes granting permission for it to be edited for clarity, accuracy and brevity. Send longer works of opinion to commentary@alaskadispatch.com.