Readers share views on Medicaid, global warming, guns

Medicaid costs

Some suggest that Missouri needs to be concerned that the cost of Medicaid is projected to increase over the next decade. It strikes me that the costs of most things are projected to increase over the next decade.

These costs would be more than matched by savings the state would enjoy if Missouri took advantage of the Affordable Care Act and expanded the Medicaid program.

Yes, costs would increase, but the dramatic savings would outweigh those costs.

Some are similarly worried about increased demand on emergency rooms. The best data show the average new Medicaid member uses the emergency room one additional time every four years and that better orientation and education could reverse that pattern.

It is disingenuous for the people who have been gutting the administrative funding for Medicaid in Missouri to then criticize it as a broken system. It’s akin to accusing someone of putting his face in the way of your fist.

Let us do the smart thing for Missouri and the right thing for Missourians — give all low-income people access to this life-saving program.

Ed Weisbart, M.D.

Olivette, Mo.

Global warming

Cracks in the seemingly almost monolithic dam of Republican denialism on global warming are beginning to appear.

A Republican congressman from New York, Chris Gibson, has introduced a resolution urging Republicans to return to their roots in conservation and engage in responsible stewardship policies toward the environment and the problem of global warming.

Only 10 fellow representatives have courageously signed on as co-sponsors, probably at some costs to their political fortunes.

These brave Republicans are breaking rank with many of their contemporaries and are aligning themselves with 97 percent of climate scientists who conclude humans are very likely causing warming of our climate system.

Now is the time for all Republicans whose views mirror those of Rep. Gibson to contact their representatives and urge them to become co-sponsors.

Remind them that you vote and that you support our country moving toward a society that is much more sustainable.

We are all in this together, and those of us on the “other side” can’t do it without you.

Dave Mitchell

Kansas City

Gun-control noise

Every time there is a mass shooting, there is a lot of noise about reasonable gun controls. Our gun rights are inviolable.

This is natural selection hard at work. This is post-natal abortion.

Folks want weapons because they are frightened, but they automatically put themselves and their families at greater risk. If innocents are routinely killed, this is the price we must pay, the required human sacrifice to maintain our sacred gun rights.

To paraphrase a highly regarded wise man, those who live by the gun die by the gun.

Nature is taking its course.

Life is all about choices and consequences. Consider making the choices we can live with.

Steven Kakuske

Warrensburg, Mo.

Rein in bishops

The movie “Spotlight” shows one of the Catholic church’s cover-ups. The website bishopaccountability.org lists more than 10,000 accusations of sexual abuse with more than $3 billion paid to victims.

In their 2002 Dallas meeting, bishops voted 246-7 to have a zero-tolerance policy. Later, some bishops, including Robert Finn, chose not to follow this recommendation. Finn’s predecessor voted for it.

Unfortunately, each bishop acts almost like a Roman emperor in his diocese. They have almost absolute power unless they do not follow church laws.

Lay persons need to step forward and have that changed. A lay board of directors should help promote and supervise bishops.

It should handle legal and financial issues. Does anyone think a lay board would have approved the bishops’ morally and legally wrong abuse decisions?

Bishops should be forced to follow their group votes. Would a lay board permit $3 billion in corporate losses without firing most of those who caused it?

Can you trust bishops who permitted these sinful actions for more than 50 years? A Dallas newspaper article reported in 2002 that the bishops “behaved like senators or CEO’s engaged in damage control” rather than “as moral teachers engaged in the gospel.”

James Wasko

Olathe

This story was originally published December 14, 2015 at 9:00 AM with the headline "Readers share views on Medicaid, global warming, guns."