Mailbag:

Ila Johnson is at it again. Her July 23 letter, “Obama health plan wrong for America,” is nothing more than right-wing propaganda and distortions put out by the insurance industry.

She says that the public option is a government takeover and that no one will be able to purchase new private health insurance effective the same year the bill goes into effect.

The government has no proposal to run health care. The public option offers people a government insurance program that people can choose much like Medicare.

Johnson rails against Medicare as being rife with waste and fraud. She neglects to report that Medicare administration is under 10% while private insurance costs range as high as 30%.

In addition to Medicare being saddled with the most ill segment of the population, private insurance lobbyists were able to get a Republican Congress to pass the Medicare Advantage Plan, which allows people qualified for Medicare to enroll in a private HMO plan that is paid fees whether the enrollee is ill or not.

To add to this con game, Congress enacted the drug option, Medicare Part B, which prohibits negotiation of drug prices with pharmaceutical companies further ripping off Medicare funds.

Johnson repeats the tired old canards that government will make your medical decisions for you and you will have to wait for tests and treatment. Medicare has proven that wrong. This anecdotal nonsense is being pushed by private insurers who are spending millions to protect their bonanza and hoodwink a gullible public.

People need health care. In 2007, the United States spent $7,290 for everyone on health care, leaving 47 million uninsured and untold millions of under-insured facing bankruptcy. The other industrialized countries averaged $2,964 per person. According to the World Health Organization, they have better health outcomes, while the United States falls to Third World status.

A June survey conducted by the New York Times and CBS found that 72% of Americans favor the creation of a public plan and thought that government would do a better job than private insurers of holding down costs and providing coverage.

It is time to restore democracy and stop corporations from running this country at the expense of its citizens.

JAMES E. YOUNG

Newport Beach

Best not to shield children from the realities of life

While I have come to expect summer re-runs on television, I am very troubled to see letters being re-run in the pages of The Daily Pilot. The letter published on July 14 about “Rent” is a verbatim reprint of a letter run May 2 that recycles that old chestnut about what’s wrong with kids today, landing the blame this time on a Pulitzer Prize-winning play about AIDS, addiction and homelessness in New York City in the 1990s.

I saw this production every night it ran. I found the cast and entire production to be extraordinarily committed to conveying this incredible story with integrity and honesty. The production won the most number of nominations in the history of the Cappies, including best overall production, and many cast members got top recognition from prominent groups like the National Youth Theatre Awards. Anyone criticizing the show should first have seen it.

People have been underestimating the capacity of young people to think and act maturely for millennia. I am reminded of this quote: “Children today are tyrants. They contradict their parents, gobble their food, and tyrannize their teachers.” This quote is attributed to Socrates more than 2,500 years ago.

If shielding young people from the realities of life could actually protect them from those realities, then are we to ban classics like “Les Miserables,” “To Kill a Mockingbird,” “Lord of the Flies” and “The Scarlet Letter,” all of which deal with the unsavory realities of life?

What about YouTube, MTV and Facebook? Denial has never helped solve a problem.

I am exceedingly proud of those who helped bring this production about and have been inspired by the cast and crew of “Rent,” whom I have come to know. They have done a great service to their high school and community.

THOMAS J. PETERSON