Over the weekend, several AVA contributors have had articles published on The Indianapolis Star’s op-ed page. This past Saturday Dr. Christopher Stack, a member of Hoosiers for a Commonsense Health Plan, wrote a piece entitled “High ranking doesn’t make us feel better”, which takes WellPoint CEO Angela Braly to task for insisting in a recent Forbes article that “health-care reform be done by the private sector, and in measured steps.” Dr. Stack rightly points out that WellPoint and other private-sector companies have benefited handsomely from our for-profit system of healthcare (its earnings have grown 55% since 2000 to $3 billion in 2006), but the number of uninsured Americans has risen to 47 million and WellPoint’s premiums over that time grew at 2.5 times the rate of inflation. Chris observes that while the market-driven approach to health care has made huge profits for WellPoint’s CEO (whose contract calls for a $2.4 million annual salary and 410,000 shares in stock options), it has miserably failed the American people. If WellPoint’s huge profits weren’t obscene enough, he also points out that WellPoint has spent $2 million in California in an effort to defeat Gov. Schwarzenegger’s plan to require insurers to offer coverage to all regardless of health status. Thanks in no small part to the pressure being applied by committed physicians like Dr. Stack, the New York Times reports that today Sen. Hillary Clinton today will lay out a plan to secure health insurance for all Americans, while severely limiting the ability of insurers like WellPoint to deny coverage or charge higher premiums to people with chronic illnesses and other medical problems. Keep us the great work, Chris!

Monday’s Star contains op-ed pieces by two more of AVA’s finest, Sheila Kennedy and Rev. Robert Giannini.

Sheila’s regular column this week, “We get what we pay for”, is a perceptive commentary about the facile solutions to the recent property tax crisis being proposed by certain politicians challenging incumbents in local municipal elections. Sheila reminds us that “pretending we can have government on the cheap is expensive”, and that those politicians who propose simplistic solutions to the tax crisis, such as those who simply urge repeal of all property taxes, are being irresponsible and ignoring the fact that tax reform means raising some taxes so others (such as those on property) can be lowered.

Last but certainly not least, Rev. Giannini this morning reminds us that “Evil can be elusive, not to mention contagious”, as he reviews a new book by British biblical scholar N.T. Wright, “Evil and the Justice of God”, and ponders whether President George W. Bush’s promise to rid the world of evil can ever realistically be accomplished in the absence of a similar focus upon forgiveness, peace and justice.

Congratulations to Chris, Sheila and Bob, as well as to each of the many other contributors to this website, for your continued invaluable contributions and for demonstrating how discourse concerning important and even controversial public policy issues can be conducted without resorting to name calling, labels or hyperbolic rhetoric.

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