Letters to the Editor, May 16

Pre-existing medical conditions

Who will pay for these costs?  You, the taxpayer, whether your government comes up with some elaborate method or scheme they will pay or subsidize it with your tax dollars.

Bottom line …. you will pay.

I’d like to propose a very simple solution to the payment problem or concerns as follows:

Assumption one: Pre-existing medical conditions should be covered by insurance.

Assumption two: There are approximately 90 million insurance policies. Here comes the simple solution. All insurance companies charge each policy holder an additional $0.25/policy/ month totaling $3/policy/year resulting in collection of approximately $270 billion dollars. This money should be put into the “pre-existing condition medical coverage risk pool.” This approach will not affect the federal deficit because it will remove the current Obamacare burden that is increasing our federal deficit. The risk pool money cannot be used by or transferred to the general fund.

Now it is up to our politicians and insurance companies to come up with a simple way to use these “American citizen collected monies” in a fair and honest way to help those with a pre-existing medical condition.

This payment proposal should have no major harm or economic impact on anyone. Furthermore, it eliminates the negotiations, accusations, blame, and threats between the major political parties. Let Congress act to put this proposal into law and the funding for existing conditions is solved.

Erich Schuett, Marco Island

Armenia’s aggression against Azerbaijan

On Monday, May 8, Azerbaijani-Americans joined the world in celebration of 72 years since the victory over Nazi Germany. Over 600,000 Azerbaijanis fought against Nazism on the battlefields of World War II, and more than half of those fell as heroes.

Sadly, Azerbaijanis celebrated this day amidst the world’s failure to prevent Armenia’s ongoing aggression, occupation and ethnic cleansing against their homeland. On May 8, 1992, Armenian armed forces occupied Shusha, a predominantly Azerbaijani-populated city in the Nagorno-Karabakh region of Azerbaijan.

Once a 50,000-strong historical and cultural center of the region, Shusha has been completely annihilated by Armenia: 480 Azerbaijani civilians were killed, over 600 people were wounded and 22,000 residents were expelled from their homes. Additionally, 68 residents, including women and children, were taken hostage, while 6,800 households, 44 schools, 279 landmarks, including religious landmarks and museums, were destroyed.

Today, Shusha is a ghost town populated by about 3,000 illegal Armenian settlers living in misappropriated Azerbaijani homes.

I join members of the Azerbaijani Society of America in urging our officials to recognize Armenia’s ongoing aggression against Azerbaijan. Relying on its military alliance with Russia, Armenia continues

to ignore several United Nations Security Council and General Assembly resolutions that demand its withdrawal from the occupied Azerbaijani territories.

Nearly 1 million Azerbaijanis displaced during the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict are unable to return to their homes, while Armenian authorities continue obstructing the peace process co-mediated by the United States.

Sumer Aygen, Marco Island

Let the smoke flow

At 64 years of age, I have never used drugs or alcohol. After a lifetime of construction work, I have a medical condition that required pain medication. After many tests, my primary care physician sent me to pain management where I was given opioids as treatment. The side effects were many and unmanageable so I took it upon myself to find another solution.

I obtained some cannabis legally on my own and started self-medicating using it in tiny amounts. The clinical effects were amazing. All my vital signs including A1C improved dramatically with none of the opioid side effects. My pain diminished considerably to a manageable level. My weight even dropped by 30 pounds.

I now feel I’d like to work instead of retiring but many companies have drug testing. So instead of paying into the system for a few more years, legislative actions are keeping me unemployed.

When used responsibly,

I proved, in my case, that cannabis has a place in medicine. My physicians agreed. I feel my government is keeping me from helping myself and improving my physical condition for the sake of special interests that have no concern for my health but only for the enrichment of a few.

I recently took a lifetime of savings and built my own house in Collier County. I love where I live! I gave myself and my wife the reward we deserved for the diligent efforts we made over the years to be responsible, law-abiding citizens. Now legislators have turned me into a criminal unless I go to another state.

Shame on you people! The Constitution says “we the people” Well, a majority of the “people” have spoken and you’ve chosen instead to redefine my civil rights. Your job was to make it happen — nothing more! What’s been proven is that politics is true to form — only for the few!

Ernest Zuccarelli, Marco Island