Volume XXI, Number 26

Wednesday, February 1, 2006

By Conrad Burns, United States Senator

If you're enrolled in Medicare, or have a parent or grandparent who is, the government has some good news for you. Seniors in Montana and around the country can now receive their prescription drugs through Medicare.

But should they? There is some confusion as to what kind of coverage Medicare offers and who can benefit from it, so allow me to shed some light on those and some other common questions about the program.

First, who will benefit from the program?

While this program is open to all seniors, those with incomes below $12,920 for an individual or $17,321 for a couple and limited assets will pay nothing in premium costs and only about a $2 co-pay for generic and up to $5 for name-brand drugs. So if you have a limited income and don't have prescription drug coverage from another source (such as a former employer) this plan would be invaluable.

According to the Congressional Research Service, there are more than 20,000 Montanans age 65 or older under that income level. If you or someone in your family meet that criteria and do not have drug coverage, you absolutely should enroll in one of the many plans available.

Some may have been automatically enrolled in a plan (because they met certain criteria), but you shouldn't miss out on the opportunity to choose the plan that best fits your needs before it comes to that. The money you will save could make a significant difference.

While the benefits to low-income Medicare enrollees are beyond dispute, for seniors with higher incomes and/or significant assets, the waters begin to muddy. There are many factors to consider when deciding if you should enroll. The first and most important is whether or not you already have prescription drug coverage. If you do, and you are happy with it, you may choose not to switch, and you don't have to. But there's no harm in shopping around.

If you do not currently have prescription drug coverage, I urge you to consider enrolling in a Medicare drug plan. The benefits are, generally speaking, not the same as you would find in the employment market. The benefit design can be quite confusing, so I will attempt to explain it for you. The average cost of premiums in Montana is about $36.00 per month with some much cheaper. There is also a $250 deductible, at which point the plan will cover 75 percent of the cost of drugs until your total drug spending reaches $2,250 ($750 out-of-pocket spending for you). Then the plan gets a little tricky, to say the least. It enters the area known as the "donut hole."

There is no coverage at all for the next $2850 in drug spending. On the other side of the donut hole the plan will cover 95 percent of drug costs through the end of the year, regardless of how high your spending goes. While this is not ideal or found in the private sector, it is the way the program was designed. I will work in Congress to improve this benefit and make it similar to one consumers are more familiar with, but this is how things stand now. However, if you have no coverage, this is still a good deal.

Even if you don't take many or any prescription drugs, you should consider enrolling in one of these plans. There is an enrollment deadline of May 15th, at which time there will be a 1 percent premium increase for every month you wait to sign up to discourage people from waiting to sign up until they are sick. No one buys insurance hoping to use it. Have you ever heard someone say they'd gotten such a great deal on car insurance that they can't wait to get into their first accident? Of course not. The same concept applies to this insurance.

An unfortunate fact of life is that people get sick. Prescription drugs are one of the most important tools doctors have in order to make us well again. Those drugs cost hundreds of millions of dollars to develop and can be quite expensive to buy. The Medicare drug benefit will help significantly with those costs.

I urge you to call 1-800-MEDICARE or visit www.medicare.gov to investigate which plan is best for you or your loved ones. If you cannot find the answers to your questions or are unable to find help you need to get the answers you want, please contact one of my offices. This is too important an issue to let confusion stand between you and thousands of dollars in potential savings, and your health.

Tree clearance drastic measure

The residents of Sleeping Child Road have expressed our opinions to the Ravalli County Commissioners and the County Road and Bridge Supervisor. The county's intent to clear cut the right of way on our road invoked a heated response from the affected homeowners and many of the residents on the road. We agree that problem trees should be handled. While safety is a valid issue on this road it does not justify the zealous marking for destruction of the trees in the right of way. Residents who have lived on this road for 25 years do not recall any accidents. There does not appear to be data to justify such drastic measures. We also strongly dispute the statement by county officials that 700 vehicles a day use this road. The day the Commissioners toured Sleeping Child Road, stopping to talk to residents created no traffic jam even with the numerous vehicles parked on the road. This tour lasted in excess of two hours and no more than five vehicles passed. It seems from subsequent events that the majority of the heated responses could have been avoided by a rational approach for cutting the trees. It is obvious that future issues could be better resolved by the willingness of the Ravalli County Commissioners and the County Road and Bridge Supervisor to talk, listen, and reason with residents.

Sue Horton (for)
Sleeping Child Home and Property Owners

Road department out of touch

Dear Editor,

We were so happy to see the letter to the editor from Robert Marquis regarding the questionable decision making of the county road department. We live on South Gold Creek Loop and our road is in constant distress. I say distress because it is not just a miserable washboard drive, it is nearly impassable over 75% of the time. The traffic from Highway 93 to the fork of North Gold Creek is very high, so grading simply gives residents, business vehicles and visitors about a four-day window to drive a decent and safe road before it degrades back to six- to eight-inch potholes, four- to five-inch washboard and slick deep mud. In the summer it is the same situation without the mud.

How does the road department maintain our road? Last summer we were all amazed to see a county brush hog slowly driving the entire length of South Gold Creek Loop covering both sides of the road over the course of the day. It was attempting to clear grass and scrubs off of the side of the road. What made this so interesting is that the grass was at most six inches high and the hog could only cut about five to six inches off of the side of the road. The first mile of this road is a fence line with cattle and due to the road department's grading methods there is about two feet of dirt built up along the edge pushing over our fence line and, believe me, there is no issue with visibility along this stretch. Then you have several miles of hillside and again the hog couldn't cut more than five or six inches, if anything, along this area. The only place where the hog might have successfully cut anything worthwhile would have been on the last two or so miles of paved road on the far south end. What did that day of total non-production cost us taxpayers? At that same time residents of our road had been calling constantly asking for grading as the road conditions were so dangerous. We were told it had to rain before they could come grade and when asked about their using the country water truck as they have in the past we were told it "was not cost effective" to do so. Several days later a delivery van from a Missoula furniture store overturned on our road trying to find a safe path to drive.

Cutting down trees, resurfacing perfectly good roads, and spending a full day on roads with absolutely no need of roadside trimming, is such a total waste of time and money, taxpayers' money, it is not funny. It is criminal. Is there no accountability to our road supervisor? I know the funds are limited, however that excuse simply does not wash when residents see so many plain stupid uses of the department's equipment and manpower on totally non-essential things.

Every time my husband goes to the courthouse, and that is several times a week, he sees the road supervisor there. This was true with the last road supervisor as well. Perhaps if he spent more time driving the back roads of this county and meeting with the residents on those roads he would have a better understanding of his boss's (the taxpayer) requirements of his job. I am sure he can communicate with the Commissioners via cell phone from the job site and do a far better job than sitting in their offices chatting.

Our current road supervisor is just not on the same page as the residents of this county who pay his wages. If he is acting under orders from the County Commissioners than they need to take heed, the safety and well being of those of us living on heavily traveled county roads comes over trimming nonexistent weeds and shrubs. The school buses can barely navigate many of these roads including ours and it is time to address this issue before tragedy happens.

Suzy Foss
Hamilton

Home heating assistance denied

Dear Editor,

Got heat?

Not likely. Due to high energy prices this winter, numerous households in Montana lowered the thermostat and are forced to live in the cold. But it didn't have to be that way. Governor Schweitzer proposed $10 million for home heating assistance, monies earmarked for the elderly and those with a low income. Due to conservative, penny-pinching state legislators ­ such as Ravalli county's representatives Ray Hawk, Gary MacLaren, Ron Stoker, and Bob Lake ­ $10 million of home heating assistance was whittled down to a miserly one million dollars.

Meanwhile, on the federal level, Conrad Burns voted four times against legislation that would've funneled money from national coffers into Montana for home heating assistance. What senator in his right mind takes a pass on money directed to his home state for worthy causes?

Do these men feel antipathy towards the elderly and children whose parents are out of work or earning substandard wages? Or are they simply tightfisted old-fashioned conservatives who, like Mr. Scrooge, believe that "cold is cheap" - so set your thermostat low and learn to live with it. But looking on the brighter side, we all know how much children detest changing clothes. A cold home allows kids to wear the same clothes indoors as they do outside.

Satire aside, there is a solution: Fire Burns! And Ravalli county's stingy legislators.

Bruce Weide
Hamilton

Thanks from B Company 1-190th Field Artillery

Dear Editor,

On behalf of the soldiers of B Company 1-190th FA (MP Provisional), I would like to thank you, Montana, for your support and encouragement. Over the past year we have received hundreds of letters, cards, and packages from Family Readiness Groups, families, friends, businesses, and various Veterans' organizations across the state. Your generosity has been overwhelming.

Before being deployed, most of our soldiers had never spent the holidays away from home. The holiday season of 2005 was their second in a row. Your support made it much more bearable: we had more cookies and candies than we could eat, and the home-made ornaments from the children of Montana covered our tree. It was beautiful, and gave us a place to gather and talk of home.

Though our Headquarters is located in Culbertson, our unit is comprised of men and women from 49 Montana communities: from St. Regis to Fairview and from Havre to Absarokee. Your support and prayers for them and their families has kept them strong and determined. They are proud to serve for the greatest state of the greatest nation.

It is indeed a privilege to serve with Montana's sons and daughters. Their service is having an effect upon tens of thousands of lives, and not a day passes without something that would cause your chest to swell with pride. As our mission continues, we wish you and your families the happiest and most peaceful of new years.

Michael S. Qualls, Captain, Military Police
B Company 1-190th Field Artillery

Malpractice cap should be invalidated

Dear Editor,

The American College of Emergency Physicians lauded Montana for its medical liability laws, particularly its $250,000 cap on non-economic damage awards in malpractice lawsuits and its pretrial screening of malpractice claims, making the state more attractive to physicians, even though those reforms have not yet translated into lower malpractice insurance premiums.

Except for one caveat, how could anyone argue with the benefit of making the state more attractive to physicians. That caveat is alarming.

Medical malpractice victims are victimized again by the cap on non-economic damages, especially the elderly, children, and stay-at-home parents, who find it all but impossible to find an attorney because virtually all lawyers find it financially unfeasible to represent those victims?

It doesn't surprise me that tort reform has not lowered malpractice insurance premiums in Montana. Witness what happened in California, where a cap first reared its ugly head.

Doctors' premiums in California increased 450 percent during the 13 years after medical-liability caps were imposed and only declined after voters enacted comprehensive insurance-industry reform and rate regulation of insurance companies, known as Proposition 103.

Furthermore, in the great majority of states with a cap doctors pay higher medical malpractice insurance premiums than they pay in the states without a cap.

Even so, doctors benefit from tort reform as a consequence of the inability of so many patients to seek justice through the legal system.

A law that benefits one group of people at the expense of another group, a group that has committed no offense, is a disgrace. Those who care about victims, including doctors, should encourage the Montana Supreme Court to follow the lead of the Wisconsin Supreme Court and invalidate the law that places a cap on non-economic damages.

Jane Marshall
Dover, Tennessee

Let's all work on weed control

Dear Editor,

Last Thursday I attended the meeting of the County Weed Education Committee, introducing the new County Weed Coordinator, Bryce Christiaens. Bryce is a good man with valuable experience: besides his training in ecology at University of Montana, he has worked with the sheep grazing program in Missoula and the restoration at Fort Missoula. Also, he is a seed saver, part of the Prairie Keepers group and Native Plant Society, plus he has done organic gardening in Nova Scotia and Ontario. And he's a farm boy from Valier, Montana. Some of this background was brought out at the meeting, which focused on specific needs of handling invasive plants, and reseeding. Bryce was reminded that he faces a BIG job in this county.

We all have responsibility for weed control. We're talking about the invaders, the particular species that have been introduced by settlers, by gardeners, by growers, by accidental imports.

Unfortunately these plants have no natural enemies here to keep them from taking over. Knapweed is the most conspicuous, but others are leafy spurge, houndstongue and most recent visitors, Bugloss and Blue weed. We all transport their seeds, on our clothes, tires, dogs, and then complain.

First: let's learn to recognize these plants.

Second: let's ask for help. The Weed Board can advise on treatment and revegetation. Their operating principle is Integrated Pest Management, which includes pulling, bio-control, grazing, revegetation and herbicide as appropriate. Bio-control involves raising insects for specific plants; as pioneered by local leaders and the Corvallis Experiment Station for many years and now by Darby and Victor Schools, it is very successful against knapweed. A landowner can involve several neighbors to make a neighborhood plan which may be eligible for state assistance.

Third: let's start now before the growing season. We all want to see our fields restored, with greater productivity and beauty. WE CAN DO IT IF WE WORK TOGETHER. The County Weed Education Committee is a volunteer auxiliary to facilitate learning activities. The next meeting is Feb. 23 at Grantsdale School to study the Bugloss invasion in that area.

Olive Robison
Hamilton

Newspaper letter policy biased

Dear Editor,

When a new editor takes over at a paper the public gets an accurate glimpse into the editor's character and a revelation of that editor's belief or lack thereof in a "free press."

Wayne Adair was one of the most fair editors I have ever known when it came to letters to the editor. He made an impressive effort to print letters from all sides. He, however, was cautious that he not print letters that were slanderous or that contained inappropriate language for a family paper, but he made a point to try to be fair to all sides.

In my experience, that was quite refreshing for a Lee Newspaper and highly unusual. With the new editor of the Ravalli Republic, Jenny Johnson Howard, l have seen the other extreme.

Jenny's policy seems to be one based in arrogance. She will reject any letter that she does not agree with or that she just does not want to print.

She doesn't seem to mind if a letter contains a threat against an individual because of that person's beliefs or feelings. A common way for someone who disagrees with a person or position to win a point is to "demonize" that person and make them look like something or someone they are not. If the new editor of the Republic agrees with the demonizer then she will print letters to support that position. She will, at the same time, not print letters that try to show the other side.

In November a letter was written and printed in the Ravalli Republic from a Stevensville man who wrote that he was forming an organization to run me out of town. l and my family have received these threats before. At least one resulted in the necessity of police protection. These threats are generally made because of my stand against homosexuality and pornography. Never before have those making the threats been allowed to use a newspaper to make them, although the writers would have been pleased if they could have found a newspaper to print them.

At least a half dozen letters have been written to the Republic concerning this and even though one of the writers of a letter written way back in November of 2005 has been promised three times that their letter will be published, none of them have.

The Ravalli Republic does have the right to reject any letter any time. The fact remains that the letters the Ravalli Republic prints, or refuses to print, directly reflect the editor's character and true feelings about freedom of the press.

The Missoulian printed a glowing report on the new movie "Brokeback Mountain" in which two men meet early in life and have a homosexual relationship. Later they marry and have children. After they have started families, they happen across each other again and have a relationship that has a high "ick" factor and then they abandon their children and wives so they can continue to be involved in that type of sexual activity and follow their lusts. The Missoulian gave it their highest rating.

I wrote a letter to the editor about what that movie really exhibited, two men lusting after each other sexually no matter the harm and the heartbreak to the wives and children. People who attended viewings of the movie reported that in the scene where these two lust-filled men turned against their families, the audience cheered.

Just as in the case of the Ravalli Republic, the Missoulian did not print my letter because it went totally against their agenda.

It was nice to have a Ravalli Republic, for awhile, that had an open policy on letters, with the desire to show all sides. It is sad when they form their own agenda and then push it with what letters they print and which ones they refuse to print.

It would be nice to see that policy change back to a true "free press" but don't expect it under this editor.

Dallas D. Erickson
Stevensville

Seeking area info

Dear Editor,

My name is Shawn Donaldson. I am a fifth grade student from Napa Valley Language Academy in California. I have chosen to research the State of Montana for my state report. I will be giving an oral presentation and also displaying interesting items that come from the state of Montana. I am looking for people to send me tourist maps, postcards, souvenirs, photos of your state capitol, state bird, or other important or interesting buildings or parks in your state. Thank you for you help and I look forward to hearing about the awesome facts about your state.

Shawn Donaldson
c/o Maestra Llamas-Cruz, 5th grade teacher
2700 Kilburn Ave.
Napa CA 94558