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— Don Bramhall, Bend

Universal health care will save money and improve care

Representatives Emerson Levy and Jason Kropf have done a superior job representing Central Oregon, but in the editorial, “Two Bend legislators worry state plan for universal health care won’t work,� they got it wrong.

Rep. Levy claimed Oregon’s risk pool is too small, but she has it backwards. A single payer would make the risk pool much larger. It would cover all Oregonians, instead of the much smaller number currently covered by each individual for-profit company. With more people under a single insurance, by Levy’s own logic, universal health care will be better than our current fractured system.

Rep. Kropf echoed Levy’s mistaken information, and claimed that universal health care is “aspirational.� Yes, but it’s an aspiration we can accomplish, if Oregon’s legislators do the job we elected them for.

Detailed research and financial analysis in the Task Force report shows universal health care will provide better care, to more people, for less money, disproving Levy and Kropf’s mistaken information.

When I had a stroke at age 39 (no risk factors), with “good� insurance, my insurance company delayed my care and it still cost me over $14,000 out of pocket. That wouldn’t have happened with single payer, but I’m lucky; I survived and could pay the bills.

We need decisions based on facts and evidence, not based on misinformation, and the facts tell us we need universal health care.

— Deren Ash, La Pine

Give the gift of a subscription

I would like to thank Ron Paradis in his recent guest column for suggesting one way to help The ÅÝֱܽ²¥ and EO Media is to give a gift subscription to The ÅÝֱܽ²¥ to their adult children. My husband and I have been subscribers for over 30 years and we have greatly valued the local reporting done throughout the years. I was wondering how to help local journalism in these hard times and with Mr. Paradis’s suggestion, I signed my daughter and family up for a 6 month subscription. I’m hopeful others will do the same thing and we can continue reading local news from these talented journalists.

— Sherry Oelkers, Bend

Not Trump for president

Thanks for publishing the recent guest column by Ronald E. Carver (Trump is unfit for the presidency, June 7. It’s the best compilation of Trump’s many character flaws and moral failures that I’ve seen. Whatever merit there might be in his policy positions, it’s clear that Trump should never again be allowed within cheating distance of the White House.

— Brian Shetterly, Bend

Not voting for Trump

I found Wally Long’s opinion on Trump’s electability following his trial interesting. Please allow me to offer a fact: Even if every millionaire in the U.S. donated to Trump’s campaign, he couldn’t be elected if the majority of the people voted against him.

And another: Even if I were a racist, misogynist, homophobe, I still wouldn’t vote for a man who whines like a spoiled child every time things don’t go his way.

— Chris Mondt, Bend