Vaccinations are a precious gift to support life against preventable disease

Echo opinion letter published in the Herald & Review newspaper in Decatur, Illinois.

The Vaccination Solution!

"Freedom isn't free."

This saying is often invoked on occasions honoring those who serve in our military, but it is just as true about most civic behavior.

Every law places some limits on freedom. But if there is to be a measure of liberty for all, each individual must give up some measure of his/her liberty. "My freedom to swing my arms ends, where your nose begins."

The legality of mandatory public health measures such as quarantine and vaccination is well established in our country. E.g., in 1906 the Supreme Court upheld mandated vaccination in a case concerning a Massachusetts pastor who challenged his state's mandate of smallpox vaccination.

The Court noted that the Constitution does not always allow Americans to behave as they choose.  

To quote Justice Harlan in that case, "Real liberty for all could not exist regardless of injury that may be done to others."

A vaccination is not a personal sacrifice, so much as a precious gift that confers a measure of freedom from threat of a deadly disease. In present case, the disease has killed 700,000 in our country alone and millions worldwide.

The safety and efficacy of the COVID vaccines has been verified by scientific research of a kind we ordinary folk are not qualified to do for ourselves. But anyone may follow statistics on the spread of the pandemic, and see that it wanes where people accept vaccinations, and surges in places where they refuse. 

That is a matter of fact, not of personal opinion!

There is no "medical freedom" to risk infecting others with a deadly disease. Rather, there is a civic duty we have to each other: to be, not part of the problem, but part of the solution; to do our part toward curbing the spread of COVID-19 by following the mandates.

From Peggy Brayfield, Charleston, Illinois

Health care costs are out of control- echo from South Carolina

An opinion about the growing cost of receiving health care published in the Charleston South Carolina newspaper, The Post and Courier 

David Wallis - In late March, my right elbow suddenly ballooned up, becoming red, painful and hot to the touch. But what I assumed was tennis elbow proved to be cellulitis, a serious infection that required an IV of an expensive antibiotic dispensed during six hours in a Manhattan emergency room. The hospital billed my insurance company more than $10,000 per hour — $65,892.04, to be exact. 

I wasn’t even admitted for the night.

Fortunately my insurer will significantly reduce my share of the charges. but the ultimate out-of-pocket cost will still sting long after my elbow no longer does. Adding insult to injury, I can’t write off this unexpected and unavoidable expense on my taxes.

In 2019, taxpayers can deduct medical expenses that exceed 10 percent of their adjusted gross income, up from 7.5 percent in 2018 (and double the floor set by the Franklin D. Roosevelt administration in 1942, when it established the tax break). Suppose a family with an income of $100,000 per year spends $9,999 this year on doctors’ bills and insurance premiums. They are out of luck. Sens. Susan Collins, R-Maine, and Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., have introduced legislation to roll back the income threshold to 7.5 percent, but why stop there?

Here’s a Band-Aid to help millions of Americans cope with rising health-care costs: Tweak the tax code to allow low- and middle-income taxpayers (like myself) to deduct all essential medical and dental expenses. The IRS defines medical expenses as expenditures that “alleviate or prevent a physical or mental disability or illness. They don’t include expenses that are merely beneficial to general health, such as vitamins or a vacation.” That means no write-off for a nip and tuck, but you get one for cellulitis. Perhaps cap the benefit for those who earn less than $140,000 per year, which amounts to about three times median income.

“Health care is not something that people have a choice about,” said Caitlin Heyward, a self-employed attorney in Columbia, South Carolina, who supports expanding the medical-expense tax deduction. “It’s not like I’m picking a Volvo over a Camry.” 

Last month, she received a more than $13,000 bill for a routine five-minute D and C (dilation and curettage) after a miscarriage.

The medical-expense deduction serves as “an important tool for middle-income taxpayers,” said Cristina Martin Firvida, vice president of financial security and consumer affairs at AARP. An analysis by the organization found that in 2016, those who claimed the medical-expense tax deduction had racked up average medical bills of $15,467. That’s a budget buster for many households. Research by AARP has found that the majority of those who have taken advantage of the tax break were older than 65 and earn less than $75,000 annually. An estimated 3.6 million people will qualify for the deduction this year.

My proposal won’t add much to the $22 trillion national debt, relatively speaking. According to an AARP fact sheet, the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy estimated that lowering the threshold from 10 percent to 7.5 percent would cost $1.2 billion in 2019. It will unquestionably cost more than that to eliminate the threshold for many more taxpayers. Budget hawks (if they still exist) in Congress probably could pay for the benefit by clamping down on tax breaks that enable corporations to deduct the cost of plush private jets.

Despite consumer protections established by the Affordable Care Act and the slowing of runaway medical spending, more must be done to address the nation’s health-care crisis. And it is a crisis. 

A recent survey by the Commonwealth Fund asked respondents whether they could afford an unexpected medical bill of $1,000; half could not.

Rather than work with Democrats to fix the ACA’s flaws, the Trump administration continually plots to destroy the law. Most recently, the president promised to unveil the elusive Republican replacement for Obamacare after his putative reelection.

Meanwhile, many Democratic presidential candidates tout Medicare expansion as a cure-all.

Some on the left reflexively vilify incrementalism. 

And progress is rarely instantaneous. Objecting to any solution that falls short of universal health coverage is akin to doctors denying palliative care to a dying cancer patient because they have yet to develop a cure for the disease.

Sara Collins, the Commonwealth Fund’s vice president for health care coverage and access, considers a new targeted tax break to be one step — but not the only step — in the right direction.

“View policy options along a continuum,” Collins said. A change in the tax code “won’t completely solve the problem, but it will certainly provide some relief to a lot of people.”

David Wallis is managing director of the Economic Hardship Reporting Project, a journalism nonprofit.

Tragedies when American president is a national eulogist

Our nation's Constitution "to form a more perfect union" did not intend for the country's executive officer to be a professional eulogist. Unfortunately, this responsibility has recently become ingrained in the Presidential job description.

Article Two of the United States Constitution creates the executive branch of the government, consisting of the President, the Vice-President, and other executive officers and staffers appointed by the President, including the Cabinet. Pursuant to Article Two, the executive power of the federal government is vested in the President.

Yet again, President Obama will perform this tragic function to eulogize the legacy of Rev. Clementa Pinckney, who was among 9 people murdered in a racist killing at the AME church in Charleston, South Carolina.

President Obama will eulogize the pastor killed in the Charleston SC church massacre:  

On Friday June 26, President Obama and Vice President Biden will attend the funeral services for the Rev. Clementa Pinckney, one of nine victims killed in last week's shooting at the historic AME black church in Charleston, South Carolina. 

President Obama will also deliver the eulogy at Pinckney's funeral. The funeral will be held Friday morning June 26 TD Arena at the College of Charleston.

Pinckney, 41, was a married father of two. In addition to his role at the Emanuel AME Church, he served in the South Carolina Senate. He was first elected at the age of 23.

Suspected gunman Dylann Roof, 21, who has reportedly confessed to the shooting, was charged with nine counts of murder in what appears to be a racially motivated attack. by Ben Frumin

Charleston Shooting Victim State Senator Clementa Pinckney 'Was a Family and Religious Man,' Says Friend

The prominent South Carolina state senator identified as one of the nine killed in June 17, Wednesday night's mass shooting at the AME historic church in Charleston, South Carolina, was a hugely influential man in his community, Elder James Johnson, president of the National Action Network's local chapter, told PEOPLE.

Clementa Pinckney, 41, who served as the pastor of Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church, was killed when 21-year-old alleged gunman Dylann Storm Roof opened fire during a Bible study.  "He was a very religious man," says Johnson. "He cared a whole lot about people. He always wanted to correct wrong."

Pinckney was a major force in the spiritual community. He answered the call to preach at the age of 13 and at age 18 he received his first appointment to be a pastor.

At the age of 23, he was the youngest African-American in South Carolina to be elected to the state legislature.

On Friday, President Barack Obama will eulogize Pastor Pinckney in Charleston (while the red rag Dixie flag still flies on government property). Unbelievably, the litany of eulogies given by our American presidents are creating an anthology about America's history of gun violence. These funereal occasions show the nation's rapid progression into an epidemic of preventable deaths.  

Our American presidents were never intended to be professional eulogists, but they are. Neither was our nation's Constitutional second amendment meant to cause the epidemic of gun violence deaths, whereby our Presidents have learned how to become professional eulogists.


America's presidents are likely growing accustomed to their growing oratory role as the focus of funerals, but the eulogy President Obama will deliver for Rev. Pinckney will be given while the ugly symbol representing the reason for the young leaders murder will continue to fly, in South Carolina. This terribly symbolic situation makes President Obama's eulogy one of the most important speeches of his Presidency.  

South Carolina must remove that red rag flag from government buildings as soon as possible, or the state will never recover from the public relations consequences of having it flying while President Obama delivers Rev. Pinckney's eulogy.