Myer on health care

Mike Myer asks us "Is Health Care A Bargain?" In a meandering column (root canals, anyone?) with undocumented statistics and no acknowledgement that the U.S. pays twice as much for health care as most advanced nations with single payer/socialized health care with much worse results, he finally gets to his conclusion:

But is what we’re paying a bargain? Ask yourself this question: At about $10,000 per year, an American woman with average life expectancy pays out $810,100 for medical care during her lifetime.

Is the nearly seven years of life she’s gained since 1967 worth that?

A nice touch on Mother's Day from someone who has likely had excellent health care coverage for most of his adult life.

Praising an Ogden favorite for solving a problem that doesn't exist

According to today's editorial, Secretary of State Mac Warner has been purging the voter registration rolls of dead people, prisoners, and people who have moved out of the state. This will go toward "Ensuring Elections Are Clean in W.Va." as the editorial puts it.

The editorial begs the question as to whether or not West Virginia's elections are currently clean. To that end, it provides only one vaguely-worded example:

Things were so bad that in at least one county a year or so ago, there were more registered voters than residents 18 or older.

No date, no county, and most importantly, no documentation that any of these "voters" actually voted. (I could not find this example anywhere online.) But for some reason, we should be worried:

Combine that with West Virginia’s reputation for crooked elections in the past, and a federal probe might have seemed in order.

No, it wouldn't have. I did some research on recent voter fraud in West Virginia and found very few examples. Heavy.com listed these examples:

In 2012, a man in Lincoln County was sentenced for engaging in a voter fraud scheme. He conspired to stuff a primary ballot box while running for circuit clerk. Also in 2012, a West Virginia sheriff pleaded guilty to voter fraud for illegally filling in absentee ballots when he was worried he might lose.

And last month, Politico found the following example from 2004:

The feds convicted 27 people in vote-buying schemes in eastern Kentucky and southern West Virginia. One Democratic county manager paid poor, handicapped and illiterate people to vote for him. He was still in office in 2004 when he was sentenced to just over two years in prison.

Other criminals included a sheriff, city police chief and a Circuit Court clerk in West Virginia. Prosecutors said the clerk, a Democrat, and his associates got precinct captains to pay people $20 to vote for a slate of preferred candidates in a May 2004 primary, with the goal of controlling county government.

It's important to note that Warner's recent voter purge would not have prevented either of these examples. That doesn't matter to the News-Register -- he's a favorite and whatever he does gets him publicity.

By the way, Warner is also a big believer in Trump's totally unproven assertion that millions voted illegally for Hillary Clinton. Even our local papers have editorially ignored that one although they've yet to editorialize on Trump's bizarre explanation for his three million voter deficit or, for that matter, Warner's belief that Trump is correct.

Justice gets an op-ed

I was a bit surprised that the News-Register printed an op-ed, "Putting West Virginia on Pathway to Prosperity," from Governor Justice on B5 of the opinion section. (Note - as of 9 PM Sunday, there is no available link to his piece on their website.) The News-Register deserves credit for publishing his views although their recent anti-Justice editorials certainly more than balance this one op-ed. I would think that we'll soon see yet another editorial on the matter -- one that answers Justice's points.