Chicago Tribune from Chicago, Illinois • 8

Voice of tho people irago Tribune Health care is a right, not a privilege John W. Madkmn, President RlCHAKliClCCONB, Mwnauiny Editor COJJJCKN DlSHON, Associate Editor Jamks I). Squhiks, Editor Jack Fuu.kk, Executive Editor DKN18 Gosskun, Associate Editor Stanton K. Cook, IiMisher LOIS WllXB, Editorial l'age Editor DOUGLAS E. KNEKIJIND, Associate Editor 8 Section 1 Monday, March 27, 1989 Our present difficulties may well be exacerbated by the demographic forces now at work not only in our own society, but throughout the world.

Before the middle of the next century, our elderly population will nearly double, from 12 percent to 22 percent of our population. The difficulties the Congress has experienced in developing a catastrophic health insurance plan were complicated both by fiscal constraints and demographic pressures. Whatever action Congress takes in the future in" confronting the health care challenge, we are going; to need a vigorous press to help provide us with the necessary facts and figures not one that is tied to the old witticism that if government gets too involved, what we'll have is a system that has -j been crafted by the same people who gave us the Post Office. What we have now is a system guarded by the same foxes who have been guarding the health care coop for the last 50 years. This has given us the 14th ranked health care system in the world, while by all objective opinion, we have the top rated Social Security system, the best space -I program and, yes, the finest post office in the world.

I am not suggesting that the government run our health care system, only that we participate in, its improvement and in its more adequate funding. Is it too much to ask that a nation approaching a gross national product of $5 trillion join the rest of the Western world's democracies and begin to regard health care and education as a right, not a privilege? Martin A. Rnsso Member of Congreu CHICAGO The Tribune deserves much praise for its recent article focusing attention on health care delivery systems in other countries and its editorials on the condition of health care in our own country. The problems of access, affordability and distribution of health care resources described by The Tribune clearly demand the attention of Congress. We devote an enormous share of our resources to the delivery of health care, yet still find tens of millions of our fellow citizens without the financial ability to obtain quality care.

While many Americans enjoy the finest or care in the world, 37 million Americans live without health insurance. This nation leads the world in many things. We drive more cars, take more vacations, see more movies, eat better food and live in bigger houses than the people of any other nation. However, we are the only Western industrialized nation that does not have some kind of universal national health insurance. Before anyone raises the hysterical cry of "socialized medicine," I want to make it clear that no matter what buzzword is attached to it, what I am actually saying is that what this nation should provide is a health care system that does not require exploratory surgery on people's wallets before they can have access to adequate health care.

The recently passed catastrophic coverage legislation does not go far enough in helping seniors pay the outrageous costs of chronic health care, which impoverishes entire families and has raised legitimate concerns within the senior community as to how it is financed. 4g EVER THINK OF fiJ FLYING L7 rl 'Demon rum' A compromise on Central America Free rein CHICAGO Three times in the past few weeks, The Tribune has had occasion to print the expression "free reign." I am going to assume that you and your readers meant "free rein," which literally means a rider has loosened his hold on the reins of the horse's bridle and given the horse some slack. In another context, it means to allow someone to do what he will with' a situation. tral American governments. Should the White House fail to keep its end of the bargain, any of four congressional committees has the power to cut off the money in November.

The value of this approach is that, for the next year, it preserves a big incentive for the Sandinistas to adhere to their treaty commitments. Having supported and encouraged them for eight years, the U.S. has a duty to help the contras begin new lives if and when their fight is finally concluded. These funds can be used for that purpose. Will the peace treaty work with U.S.

cooperation? Maybe. The Reagan administration saw the contras as the only leverage it had against Managua, but the public support for its policy was narrow. With each passing week the rebels' hopes of holding together to fight again fade a bit more. The Central American presidents who have to live with their Sandinista neighbors, however, have reached the conclusion that the best check on Nicaragua's government is the force of Latin and world opinion. They may turn out to be right or wrong, but it's hardly the business of the U.S.

government to override their decision. Washington can always pursue America's crucial interests in the region through direct talks with Managua, which both Reagan and Bush have rejected. As for pressuring the Sandinistas to open up their domestic economy and their political process, the Central American peace treaty is about the only instrument available. With Congress and the administration now acting in concert, its chances of success are somewhat better than before. The continuing turmoil in Central America has finally produced a peace agreement, this one not between Nicaragua and its neighbors, but between the fiercest enemies Congress and the White House.

Whether or not it achieves its stated goal of bringing peace and democracy to the isthmus, it at least promises to stop the endless warfare up and down Pennsylvania Avenue. "Today, we the executive and the Congress, Republicans and Democrats, will be speaking with one voice on an extremely important foreign policy issue, Central America," proclaimed President Bush. This new bipartisan spirit, however, is the product less of statemanship than of necessity. The President, who had argued for resuming military aid to the Nicaraguan contras, has been around long enough to recognize a hopeless cause when he sees it The chance that Congress would renew the help it cut off last year was about equal to the odds that Jim Wright will become pope. But Democrats on Capitol Hill, well acquainted with Daniel Ortega's record of duplicity, aren't comfortable having to take full responsibility for whatever happens in Nicaragua if and when the contras are gone.

They needed a deal with the White House that minimizes their vulnerability to Republican criticism if the Sandinistas break their promise to liberalize. Hence the agreement reached Thursday. It provides for the continuation of humanitarian aid at a rate of $4.5 million a month through next February. It commits the administration to work for the implementation of the peace accord signed last year by five Cen Needed protection for whistleblowers SKOKIE The letter by Rachel Kelly of the WCTU concerning the "champagne bash" held by the Chicago Federation for Women cannot go unanswered. Mrs.

Kelly's remarks concerning alcohol being a deadly narcotic drug smack of the old "demon rum" diatribe of the 1800s. Alcohol is neither deadly nor a narcotic when consumed in moderation. Our lives, in general, are based on that little word "moderation," and when we overindulge in anything, be it food or drink, the results can lead to serious consequences. A moderate amount of spirits, wine or beer, has been shown by doctors to be beneficial to a person's good health. Robert C.

Morgen Zollar supporter CHICAGO In reply to Thomas Hardy's column regarding Nikki Zollar When a woman is politically assertive she is called "petulant" and a "spoiled brat" When a man wheels and deals politically, it is called "business as usual." For the record Nikki Zollar is a young, bright, alert, skilled woman who brings integrity to her position. She gives her position strength, stability and superior knowledge of legal discourse. She is poised, has great manners and is a loving and caring person who has been reared to know and to do, not to "want." Alice Hewitt Blackburn Minimum wage CHAMPAIGN I read the column titled, "If a minimum wage of $4.65 is good, $25 is a lot better," and found myself -wondering if Mr. Chapman was ever in the position of the people he was writing about The minimum wage has not been raised for several years though the cost of living has. The ones who suffer most are the people with few skills, the ones working for $3.35 an hour.

The jobs that pay minimum wage are non- unionized; the workers have little or no job security. There are few worker benefits, and skills acquired from such jobs are rarely deemed useful for higher paying jobs. Thus, it seems to be a better deal to stay unemployed and earn welfare benefits than to slave away in a fast-food restaurant or some other menial labor. Perhaps some businesses will move abroad, automate or close down, as Mr. Chapman says.

I remind him that the original minimum wage laws and health benefits were products of the Roosevelt administration, deep in the midst of the Great Depression. History records their efforts as successful in helping to ease the suffering, not to increase it Bob Francis Baseball forecast PAW PAW, Mich. Well, folks, this is the time of year that all baseball team owners, general managers and field managers say, "This is the best team ever, and we will win." My own analysis of the Chicago situation is best described by three little words: White Sox hopeless, Cubs almost hopeless. And I have been a Chicago baseball fan since 1928. Warren W.

Carsten The last time I looked, meant the period of rule of a sovereign leader. Diane L. Schirf Insensitive poster CHICAGO I was very distressed to see the insensitive poster showing a stuttering pig prepared by the American Cancer Society reprinted in the. Food Section of your paper. To.

attempt to promote good health-while making fun of a disability which seriously handicaps so many individuals indicates a gross disregard for those so inflicted with speech disorders. As a parent of a young adult with a serious speech disfunction, you may take my word that there is no humor in such an impediment Richard H. Sullivan" The mommy track WHEATON As the mother of a preschooler and a career woman with 20 years invested in climbing the corporate ladder, 1' welcomed Joan Beck's sane and dignified comments on "The Mommy Track." I have been struggling to maintain my career while pursuing alternative schedule choices. The fear that reagnizing "career primary" and ''career and family" women might stratify women or push them into second-class job ghettos ignores the fact that this is already true. The lack of alternative schedule choices is contributing to this stratification.

I have seen many women who wish to be more personally involved in their children's lives' forgoing altogether the push for higher positions. They are doing so because they cannot see themselves having single-minded career dedication when their children are young. If there could be an open recognition that women can be "career primary" for the vast majority of their careers and "career and family" focused for a small portion of their career, I believe many more women would see the pursuit of upward mobility as a realistic and attractive option. Judith A. Lindner Chanute airport KANSAS, 111.

Now that the shock has worn off the closing of Chanute, maybe some more rational thinking may prevail. Chanute's value as a training base was obsolete with World War II and its use has been questionable ever since, but its true role has yet to be exploited. That role is as a regional airport serving an area from Bloomington to Effingham and from Decatur to Danville. These distances are less than people now drive to use O'Hare on a regular basis. Equally important would be its use as a connecting hub to take the pressure off of O'Hare.

Robert F. Kerens curement practices and cost overruns. Some, such as Ernest Fitzgerald, who blew the whistle on a $2-billion overrun on the C-SA cargo plane, are well-known. Others quietly leak information to congressional committees and reporters. But fear of reprisal apparently has kept other employees with knowledge of wrongdoing from saying anything.

In a 1983 survey of government employees, 25 percent said they knew of fraud, waste and abuse but 70 percent of those employees said they would not report it. President Bush and Secretary of Defense. Richard Cheney are going to have to deal with not only the Pentagon's usually wasteful ways, but also with the procurement scandal that has been simmering for months. Hopefully, the enactment of this new law will encourage Pentagon employees and those at other agencies to risk blowing the whistle when they know of wrongdoing. "The only way you're going to find out is if people on the inside talk to us," said Rep.

Patricia Schroeder, a Colorado Democrat who was one of the chief sponsors of the legislation. "The message in this bill is we want a watchdog for the taxpayer." Nobody likes a snitch, but whistleblowers are something else and deserve to be protected. If President Bush signs legislation doing just that, federal employees should feel a little safer about reporting waste, fraud and abuse in their agencies. The new law protecting whistleblowers is a revised version of legislation pocket-vetoed by President Reagan last fall much to the consternation of Congress, which was out of session at the time. Congressional sponsors thought Reagan had agreed to sign the legislation, but last-minute constitutional concerns about one agency of the government suing another caused the administration to reverse itself.

The revised bill drops the provision that would have allowed a special counsel to file lawsuits. The legislation retains provisions making it easier for employees to fight dismissal or demotion by lowering the burden of proof that their whistleblowing was the reason for their punishment. At the same time, the bill increases the burden of proof for agencies to show the employee would have been disciplined without the whistleblowing activities. Over the years, whistleblowers, especially in the Pentagon, have exposed sloppy, if not criminal, pro KreneckRoenoke Timet WorW-Nw Buying health care CHICAGO Health care is not in the same category as cars, clothes or even houses and food. Health care (and, I would say, education and housing, too) is in the same category as Heaven.

God does not ask people how much money they have before allowing them to enter Heaven. Nobody should be able to buy better medical care, like nobody is able to buy a place in Heaven. Alexandra Panaitescu Visually impaired DES PLAINES In the article "Suburban blind feel trapped by poor transit" and in previous articles on public transportation for the disabled, the fear is expressed that the cost of purchasing accessible mainline equipment will jeopardize door-to-door service for the disabled. The Tribune should study the facts: 1. The recent Pace decision to purchase accessible buses for Joliet, Elgin and Aurora will not, according to Pace, affect the budget for door-tondoor service.

2. The Illinois Human Rights ruling requiring the CTA to purchase accessible buses will not endanger the CTA's door-to-door service. The visually impaired person referred to in your article lives in an area served by both Pace and Metra. Because he is not in a wheelchair, he is being discriminated against for the following reasons: 1. Under federal regulations, Pace is not required to offer transportation to the non-wheelchair disabled until 1993.

When requested to phase in the non-wheelchair disabled sooner, Pace's chronic response has been that they don't have enough money. 2. Metra, which claims to be exempt from federal regulations requiring service to the disabled, bars the non-wheelchair disabled from their door-to-door service. To speculate that the non-wheelchair disablcd's predicament is caused or exacerbated by future expenditures for accessible mainline service is both unfair and inaccurate. Sharon Lamp Secretary-Treasurer Concerned Ran Corridor Ueers We invite our readers to share their ideas in these columns.

Please write us at Voice of the people, Chicago Tribune, Chicago, 111. 60611. Include your name and address. The more concise the letter, the less we will have to edit it to fit our space. The good, the bad and the ugly known for entrepreneurial vigor but also for a growing gap between the rich and poor.

Youngsters are better-educated than ever, or quickly washed out of "Truly, this country whipsaws you." With those words George Kennan concluded an entry in his diary describing a commencement-day visit to a large American university in May, 1977. The day began in a "wretched motel" surrounded by parking lots, a Ford dealer, a bank, warehouses, factory chimneys and more parking lots "but not a tree, not a pedestrian, not a sign of actual life not a touch of community, not a touch of sociability." Excerpts from Kennan's diaries appeared in the Atlantic Monthly, which called the veteran diplomat and scholar "the last wise man," after the book "The Wise Men: Six Friends and the World They Made." Kennan was the only "wise man" still active when the magazine came out; now he is the only one, period, John J. McCloy having died March 1 1 at age 93. Later, the commencement behind him and still basking in the warmth of his reception, Kennan felt this: "And yet, and yet: the vitality of these places the unflagging belief in the country. Truly, this country whipsaws you." Indeed it does.

The good, the bad and the ugly are all around, now as then. America awakes to the last spring of a decade the mainstream by ghetto poverty and violence; state-of-the-art medicine saves lives but everyday health care gets harder to find and pay for; homes have more gadgets but more people have no homes. Clever, expensive specialists run political campaigns with tactics way ahead of their substance; national leaders arc still welcomed as peacemakers abroad, but in places like Europe the Soviets are the party to watch; U.S. economic strength isn't what it used to be, yet foreigners with money want to invest here and those without it spare no effort to move here; and the national pastime, that wholesome family attraction, limbers up on fields down south while fans wonder how Wade Boggs could be so limber ofT the field. America's many facets its anomalies, inconsistencies and trivialities; its large-mindcdncss and pettiness; its diverse people have created a jewel that people like Kennan, McCloy and many, many others have found worth worrying about.

Yes, this country whip-saws. But what a feeling!.