Letters to the Editor

Readers write: Letters to the editor, February 23, 2017

 

Avoid the income tax software, just take $70 more from PFD

With respect to Dermot Cole's commentary (ADN, Feb. 18) on an income tax, he did not address the millions that will need to be spent buying and installing income tax software, not to mention the cost of paying the employees required. When these costs are taken into account, the income tax is shown to be very inefficient. This information was left out of the column.

The governor's own people have said in public testimony that taking another $70 from the dividend checks can raise the same amount as the income tax, only without the cost. Much more efficient. Efficient is what we need, not more state employees.

Then there is the question of sourcing the software. The ADN has recently documented the no-bid deal for the provider of the software that detects PFD fraud that cost the state far more than it has recouped in fraud detection. Pardon me for expecting a similar backroom deal when the time comes to spend the millions of dollars the tax software is expected to cost.

Taking another $70 from the dividend and scrapping the expensive income tax keeps the solution simple and transparent while avoiding backroom deals and additional state employees in a time of budget crisis.

More efficient and less corrupt is what we need, not more government and more taxes.

— Jim Latham
Wasilla

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Patients priced out of meds
due to greedy drugmakers

By now it is quite obvious some drug companies are milking the public for all they can when it comes to price-gouging on prescription medications. Even some generics have been affected.

As a now retired physician with 41 years of practice experience, I have witnessed the astronomical increases of the costs of many medications. I had received phone calls from patients who showed up at their pharmacies to pick up their prescriptions but declined to get them because of the costs, even with insurance coverage.

The greed of EpiPen and Narcan makers typifies this problem, but it extends to other medications. Insulin and common antibiotics come to mind. There are complicated ways of decreasing the patient costs through coupons and indigent patient programs, if one is clever to ferret these out and persist in jumping through the hoops to obtain the discounts.

Cash-paying patients can be priced out of the market. Insurance coverage for expensive medications reduces the out-of-pocket expense but ultimately costs patients through their elevated insurance premiums.

Buying affordable medications has been done online, but those sources should be approached with care. In the past, Canadian pharmacies have been utilized.
We definitely have a pro-business, anti-consumer protection administration now, plus the drug companies have a lot of power in Washington, D.C., so it won't be an easy fight to make medications affordable again. Our congressional delegation needs to be informed by patients who have seen their drug prices skyrocket. They need to be informed of the costs and the amounts of increases.

Only with substantial public outcry and political will can this situation be improved.

— David P. Werner, M.D.
Palmer

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.

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