1995_04 The Daily Collegian April 1995

              Hs,
Thx&Sfldty, April 6,1995
:-X.
Editorial/Opinion
Health care not
user
DearEditor, •
"President    CHritori's
Heal th Security Act Is dead —
the consequence of a misun-
, derstanding of, the popular
concerns" (Policy Review;
Wirtter, 1995). Most of the
health reform focused on re¬
ducing the number of unin¬
sured people, with no real look
at the means to control costs.
Shouldn't adequate medical
care be a va i 1 able to everyone?
We did not have a health
care crisis in 1940 when few
people had health insurance.
Employers who ddknot pro¬
vide health insurance are not
the problem, nor are they get¬
ting a free ride as Clinton has
stated.
Employers who fall in this
category pay higher wages
and their employees pay
higher taxes. Thus, a univer¬
sal health insurance may very
Veil increase costs.
"TJ ;ose who are uninsured
do not receive the same types
of medical care that the rest of
us, if necessary, would be will¬
ing to help finance" (Policy
Review; Winter 1995). As of
1991, the net amount of un¬
compensated care to the unin¬
sured was around $20 billion,
an amount far less than that
which .the .providers are
undercompensated for by
Medicare and Medicaid.
We buy our own homes,
select what schools our chil¬
dren will attend and purchase
our own car insurance. Why
don't we purchase our own
health insurance? When think¬
ing of the term "security" in
Clinton's reform policy; how
can one feel secure when the -
£2   ■
choice of care is truly the prop¬
erty of the employer?
The negotiations of the
Health Security Act were held
by the seven largest insurance
companies in the United
States. Whose interest do you
think they had in mind? Still,
there was not talk of reducing
medical care costs! The Health
Security Act was neverpassed.
Although Clinton's idea may
Editor,^.
Like any good publicly-
k educated student, I learned
my VS. history, but I am
very upset that the US.U.
Board hasn't. When this
country adopted its new
Constitution in 1787, it in¬
cluded provisions specifying
who could vote and how
many seats in our nation's
capitol could be directly
elected. The only people who
could vote, were wealthy
white land-owners, and the
U.S. Senate was never to be a
not have been the answetv-I   directly elected body. These
none-the-iess, it would have
been a start.
Finally, we are a country
in which we have the most
advanced technological medi¬
cine a vailable»*But, once again,
it is only available to those
who have access and the
means to do so. Adequate
health care is a basic human
right not to be denied to people
on the basis of their socioeco¬
nomic status.
We need only to look at
Spain and see socialized medi¬
cal care at work. For example,
the answer to an outbreak of
breast cancer among women
was not only in medical atten¬
tion; it was also in prevention.
Routine breast examination
was enforced by the "govern¬
ment. You could go to a clinic,
or a van with all the equip¬
ment wouki come by for your
yearly checkup! The govern¬
ment sees this as a means to
reducing costs. This is just one
example. Imagine a place
where medical care is just as
important as protecting our
borders. I can.
Sincerely,
Cindy Simental
Sociology Department
USU Board ignores democracy
Your Name Here
D
Letters to the Edttor
c/oThc Daily CoUegian
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E-mail: SLW02®mortdrian.csufresno.edu
!m
provisions were set forth to
prevent what the "founding
fathers" considered "mob
rule." These people feared
democracy, but one by one,
all these limits and restric¬
tions were brought down
through the amendment pro¬
cess. In the two hundred-
plus years since then, Afri¬
can Americans were allowed
to vote; women and even les-
bians, bisexuals and gay
men, like myself (if Don't
Ask, Don't Tell is any sort of
freedom), were allowed to
vote. We Americans have
even seen to it that we could
directly vote for members of
the U.S. Senate.
On our campus, the USU
Board is doing the opposite.
The board has just issued an
edict attempting to deny the
students the RIGHT TO
VOTE FOR REPRESENTA¬
TIVES ON THE USU
BOARD! Members of the
board say students cannot
fairly choose representa¬
tives, basically claiming the
old MOB RULE argument
of our "founding fathers."
This is not right, and I en¬
courage students to not let
another board on our cam¬
pus be ruled by those who
cannot stand real student
opinion but who would
rather hand-pick "yes-
people" who will rubber-
stamp anything the organi¬
zations asks, INCLUDING
RAISING THE USU FEE,
already one of the highest in
the state.
This move by the USU
Board is unfair to minori¬
ties. Typically, the represen¬
tatives that the students elect
to fill the seats of the Board
are African American or
Latino because they work
bard to campaign and win
the seats. Typically, most
boards I have seen on this
campus who hand-pick
their "yes-people" are not
just mostly white; they are
all white, and these boards
sort-of oversee everything
from athletics to student
health. Why would the USU
Board attempt to seal off the
last remaining smidgen of
elected representation |rom
its Board when, in truth, all
its seats should be elected by
the students?
In a move quite the op¬
posite, the ASI is now con¬
sidering a proposal to in¬
crease the size of its elected
board to insure-more diver¬
sity of opinion and repre¬
sentation in the future. If
what we are proposing
serves to calm down the po¬
litical volatility of student
elections,do we think we will
have in ourselves a great ex¬
ample of the USU's attitude
being too defeatist and, in a
great sense, dangerous? And
besides, what's wrong with
debate? Why are we so afraid
of opinions,ho wever heated
they can be at times? Come
on, USU! Allow the students
to elect your board! Quit
bashing democracy by claim¬
ing it doesn't work! We all
pay into the USU, so why
can't we vote for the USU?
David Prasad
Senator, School of
Agricultural Sciences
and Technology
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