Letter to Brian Greenspun, editor Las Vegas Sun

This letter was emailed to Brian Greenspun, editor of the Las Vegas Sun, Monday, July 13, 2009. As I am somewhat calling him to the carpet, it will be interesting to see if he publishes any portion of my letter. It is in response to his op-ed piece of Sunday, July 12, 2009.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Mr. Greenspun,
I thoroughly enjoy, appreciate and respect your opinion(s). While I generally disagree with you on most points, you tend to stay away from the far left lunacy that could be the demise of this great country. Rest assured opinions from the far right would do just as much harm.

First, why do you not allow readers to comment on your opinion? Thomas Mitchell does at the RJ.

In yesterday’s Sun you state that the ‘GOVERNMENT CAN DELIVER GOOD HEALTH CARE’. While that may in fact be possible, I disagree wholeheartedly on basis for that conclusion.

Now, my neighbors are not complete strangers. That is not to say I know all of the households within one mile of my home, but I know who my neighbors are. Further, to assume that my neighbor is indigent is foolish by definition; they are not lacking a roof over their head.

To begin, I agree completely that the health care debate does not have to be Constitutional. If it is not however Constitutional, who will pay for the plan laid out by the Obama administration? To use my own interpretation of a George Will article that ran in your paper, a more accurate number of citizens needing health care/coverage would be 7 million, not 40+ million. Based on an estimated $1 trillion in cost, this equates to approximately $142k per person, to cover the 7 million. How can this possibly be OK when, for example, the homes of quite a few gainfully employed citizens of this valley are not worth that much?

Now, what you describe as “the biggest lie so far – that government can’t run a good health care delivery system”. Let me start by saying that I am one of those that think the government would be unable to run health care. I could be proven wrong, but I doubt it. You imply the phenomenal work at the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center as being run by government. I beg to differ. Simply because the Center is part of the UT system does not make it government run. The original funding was split $500k each from the M.D. Anderson Foundation and the state legislature. For fiscal year 2008 we have the following: research is 44.6% government funded, 78.3% of operating revenue is from patient (fees). Hardly government run. To further my example one need only look at the funding for the building located at Maryland Pkwy and University Rd. As a graduate of UNLV (sorry, but I spent most of my time at Beam Hall as an accounting student, before Greenspun was erected) I am very appreciative of all your family does for UNLV; with good fortune I hope to do the same. My point is this: universities may be under the guise of state/government control, but without the generosity (direction) of benefactors such as the M.D. Anderson Foundation and the Greenspun family, there would be few, if any, institutions as revered as the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center or the Greenspun College of Urban Affairs.

Thank you for the Las Vegas Sun.

Sincerely,
Daniel A. Wollam
http://nevadapoliticsbydan.blogspot.com/
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------