COVERAGE SYSTEM NEEDS OVERHAUL NOW

Extending Medicare-like health coverage to Americans of all ages no longer is just something "nice to do" someday but something we must do now. Clearly the horse race between our American health system driven by private enterprise and the public systems in virtually all other advanced modern nations has been won by the public systems.

This is true not only in the ethical dimensions of infant mortality and life expectancy statistics but in the dollars and cents of benefits and costs.

Default emergency-room care for uninsured Americans contributes to the dismaying result that our country spends almost twice as much per capita for healthcare as France does. Yet French people live longer, they can choose their doctors, and their country also has a large immigrant population. Our escalating health insurance costs put American companies at a competitive disadvantage, and half of personal bankruptcies stem from medical expenses.

We simply can no longer afford to squander our resources and hobble our country with reliance on private health insurance until age 65. An ounce of preventive care is worth more than a pound of emergency-room care.

Janet Thebaud | Honolulu

GRADUATION RATE

DOE SHOULD REALIZE BOTH STATS NOT GOOD

The Department of Education provided an incomplete response to the estimate by a national study that only 64 percent of Hawai'i's public school students graduate on time.

A DOE spokesperson explained that the figure is wrong, and that the correct figure is 79 percent. That would mean that the situation is not abominable, but merely dreadful.

The DOE response is incomplete because it failed to acknowledge that 79 percent is still much too low. The DOE does not indicate what it intends to do to get more students to graduate on time.

Perhaps the DOE believes that 79 percent is acceptable. After all, the on-time graduation rate has changed very little in five years. Or perhaps the DOE has tried to make improvements, but has been unable to do so. Either way, we're stuck with it.

The graduation rate is a good indicator of the quality of education. Are substandard public schools an unavoidable component of the price of paradise?

It seems so.

John Kawamoto | Honolulu

PROPERTY TAXES

SENIORS WATCHING WHAT MAYOR WILL DO

Now that the City Council has a proposed budget with an increase in real property tax with no credit for homeowners, the mayor now has his chance to show real guts by accepting or rejecting the proposed budget.

He has said he will review the proposed budget, take maximum time to review, and everything must be justified. The City Council had its opportunity to look at all proposed spending but could not or would not cut any additional spending, as difficult as this could be.

Why is it always on the backs of senior citizens on fixed incomes? Come on, Mayor Hannemann, remember us seniors on fixed incomes are also voters who will remember your action on property taxes.

Roy M. Chee | Honolulu

STATE FURLOUGH

OTHER CONCESSIONS COULD BE MADE

This thought has been on my mind for quite a while. Instead of three days furlough, what if the state took away the "Hawaiian" holidays such as Prince Kuhio Day, Good Friday, King Kamehameha Day and Admissions Day and just went with the "federal" scheduled holidays?

If the employee wants the day off for cultural reasons, they can take a vacation day, or a furlough day. Also, if the state decreases the contributions to the retirement plan for this two-year period, maybe then they only need one furlough day instead of three.

Juanita Shoehigh | 'Aiea