Health insurers act merely as a middleman between the people who pay the premiums and the doctors who provide care. Over 90 cents on the dollar collected by HMSA goes straight to healthcare (well above Mainland insurers).

You cannot regulate premiums without regulating drug and doctor fees.

Voters should ask if they want halfhearted government regulation of their health. Remember the last time a state government mistakenly intervened in industry: California's energy crisis. There the state set the price charged to the consumer without regulating the wholesale electricity cost. The result was disastrous for Californians. This is the solution proposed for Hawai'i health.

Health insurance costs rise due to escalating drug and physician charges. If the state is to regulate the healthcare industry, let it regulate all of it.

Michelle Ferguson

Treaty clearly states no official religion

Thanks to Mitch Kahle for being courageous enough to take a stand for the U.S. Constitution.

It is very unfortunate, to say the least, that some of our "leaders" have such little understanding of our history and our founding documents that they really see no conflict with religion and its symbols being promulgated by public officials when acting in their official capacities.

Perhaps these same "leaders" ought to become familiar with the writings of Jefferson, Madison, Franklin, Paine and Adams.

For those too busy for such research, just read the "Treaty of Tripoli," ratified unanimously by the Senate during the presidency of George Washington. The president and members of the Senate were all personally involved in the writing of the Constitution, thus they knew intimately the meanings of all of its clauses. The treaty begins, "As the United States is in no way founded upon the Christian religion ... "

The Constitution defines treaties as the "law of the land," thus placing them on a par with the Constitution itself.

Hank Kocol

Airport security is getting out of control

On Feb. 12 I began my return air trip to Hawai'i by putting any known metallic objects, including my watch and ballpoint pen, in a tray to run through the X-ray device. Nevertheless, I was beeped going through the body-screen door.

At that point, I was spread-eagled and frisked, with the frisker detecting two potentially dangerous objects: the wire coil holding the pages of my 3- by-5-inch notebook and the metal cap on my plastic Chapstick tube, each in different pockets.

Later, while I was waiting at Gate 83 in Denver for United's 4:40 p.m. flight to Honolulu, six uniformed security people lined up behind a long table as the boarding process began. The first six first-class passengers were selected for thorough body and carry-on searches — some were required to remove their shoes. As each inspector finished one inspection, he or she selected another passenger for search. That kept all six inspectors constantly busy during the entire boarding process.

Not only are we paying dearly for the cost of such "security" employees, but I wondered about the hidden costs of what I will call the harassment of perhaps 99.9 percent of travelers who don't pose a threat of any kind to anybody at any time.

It's obvious we need to be careful about who gets on airplanes with what, but the lack of discrimination and over-sensitivity in the process seems mindless at this stage. Hopefully, somebody will somehow devise a security system that will be less invasive and reduce the terrible growing direct and hidden expenses of air travel.

Preferential treatment via smart ID cards for people of proven character, willing to make certain disclosures, might be one answer. Improvements can't come too soon.

Gene M. Leupp

No formal notification on Midway departure

Bob Johnson raises an interesting point in his Feb. 13 letter ("How could Midway be closed to the public?"), asking what the Fish and Wildlife Service is doing to find another vendor.

This is especially relevant because Midway Phoenix Corp. has yet to give formal notification that it is leaving.

Midway Phoenix has crafted a wonderful exit strategy — keeping Fish and Wildlife in limbo by not giving formal notification, inconveniencing tourists and tour operators by taking deposits and maintaining a Web site (giving all appearances that it is still open for business), enlisting Midway veterans with no knowledge of day-to-day operations to attack Fish and Wildlife and poisoning the well by saying it is impossible for any company to turn a profit.

With any luck, there is a legitimate, established ecotourism company out there that will step in when Midway Phoenix finally decides to fold its circus tent.

Ted Cohn
Silver Springs, Nev.

Long-term-care plan is good for Hawai'i

I support the Care Plus Long Term Care Program currently under consideration in the Legislature. I do so despite the fact that my wife and I currently have private long-term-care insurance.

The total premium cost of our two policies is over $5,500 per year. How many retired couples can afford this much money for long-term-care insurance?

One of us had to apply to three companies before finding one that would sell us insurance. This means that two companies saw one of us as a "bad risk," someone who might actually collect benefits before paying in a lot of money in premiums.

Long-term-care insurance is a business, pure and simple, and the aim of business is to make a profit. You don't make a profit by selling insurance at a reasonable cost to those who need it most: the elderly, the sick and the disabled.

The Care Plus Program is designed to help meet the very real long-term-care needs of all of Hawai'i's people in a way that private insurance does not and cannot. It is affordable because it covers and is paid for by the entire adult population. It provides modest benefits, which will help many families care for disabled family members at home, where almost everyone wants to be cared for. The benefits themselves (as well as the premiums) will increase to account for inflation. It does not require employer or state contributions, but will be paid for entirely by the ultimate beneficiaries, the citizens of Hawai'i.

Anthony Lenzer
Kailua

Rain damage shows Lana'i Co.'s folly

During the recent heavy rains on Lana'i, there was extensive damage to both the luxury condos and house lots. Also, there was much damage to the beach at Hulopo'e and to David Murdock's personal home.

We on Lana'i have always said that there wasn't enough attention given to our concerns about run-off into the Hulopo'e Bay and the fronting shoreline.

We have heard from Lana'i Co.'s experts that this sort of thing could not happen. But after several years of drought, the company got real cocky and started back-filling house lots just above some new condos being built without the proper protection against the possibility that rains would come and move all that dirt toward the ocean.

As much as I don't like what is going on at Manele, it was a blessing that the condos were there because, if they had not been there, all that fill would have been in the ocean.

I hope the rich condo owners will start asking Lana'i Co. how it is going to protect their investments. We residents don't seem to have enough money or power to get any answers.

But those who have invested on our island need to beware that this community has an agreement with Murdock that our shoreline and our beach will not be destroyed by development at Hulopo'e.

Ron McOmber
Lana'i

Hawai'i is not a lot of things; it is aloha

We would like to add our comments to those of Kahu Charles K. Maxwell (Island Voices, Feb. 2).

We are tourists. Before our first trip to Hawai'i, we, like so many other visitors, expected the media image of the Islands, and we were not disappointed. That trip was meant to be a "once in a lifetime" experience.

Why, then, have we returned, year after year, and find that no other place on Earth can lure us now?

Before our initial visit, we cared enough to use as many sources as we could find to explore the history of Hawai'i and its people. We read and heard about the "aloha spirit," and we were eager to discover this spirit of place for ourselves.

What we found was so much more than we ever imagined that it will take a lifetime for us as haoles to even begin to understand what every person of Hawaiian ancestry feels in his soul despite the efforts of those who would have destroyed this proud and ancient civilization for all time in the name of greed.

We acknowledge the natural beauty of Hawai'i. This beauty is not found in the paved, overdeveloped and desecrated land. It is not found in the glitz and glitter that are used to sell a shallow portrayal of the traditional music and dance of Hawai'i. It is not found in the forced smiles of the Hawaiian who knows that he or she may never be allowed to earn enough to provide for the physical needs of a family despite working two or three jobs at a time. It is not found in the prisons that hold the results of a century of degradation for a once-proud people of these Islands.

The beauty of Hawai'i is "aloha." The meaning and spirit of this one word is unique and is held in the heart of the Hawaiian people.

Carole and Fred Borg

Politicians provided poor example to teens

The people of Hawai'i owe a huge debt of gratitude to the Bob Hogues in the Legislature and to those whiners who were so loud in their denunciation of the traffic cameras.

They have shown all of the young people in Hawai'i that it is not necessary to obey the laws against underage drinking, drug abuse, driving without a license or any other law they personally do not like.

The teens of the state now know that compliance with the law is a personal choice. Is this a great state, or what?

Don Chambers
Mililani

Quarantine opponents have lost debate right

State Sen. Jan Buen, initially a strong supporter of the bill to change Hawai'i's quarantine laws, has withdrawn her support and is blocking discussion and debate of this bill.

If she is so sure that quarantine is more effective than any other measure for keeping rabies out of Hawai'i, why is she stopping discussion?

On the other hand, perhaps she knows that in the 90 years that Hawai'i has enforced a quarantine, not one case of rabies has successfully been detected in quarantined animals, and hundreds of animals are smuggled into the state each year to circumvent quarantine. Sen. Buen knows that pro-quarantine arguments could not withstand current scientific information that identifies quarantine as one of the least-effective ways to keep rabies out of Hawai'i.

Buen is blocking a basic right of U.S. citizens to have their views represented in an open forum. How sad for her, but how sad especially for the residents of this state.

Rev. Liz Zivanov

Traffic cameras don't violate civil liberties

Two truths about the traffic camera debate:

• Those who argue that their civil liberties are violated by having their photos taken while driving are in actuality upset by the fact that they can no longer drive above the speed limit.

Photos of vehicles in transit are nothing new. In recent years, many police departments have begun equipping their cars with dash cameras that tape traffic stops. No one has expressed any concern about that practice violating civil liberties.

• Politicians who staunchly support repealing the program either fall under truth No. 1 themselves or recognize the issue as an easy ticket to re-election.

Those who deny either truth are not fooling anyone except perhaps themselves.

The current application of the system may not be perfect, but the idea is sound because it will save lives and not infringe on the rights of anyone. Apparently, far too many people value speeding more than they value the sanctity of life.

If the program is repealed, every death that results from a speeding-related accident rests not only on the shoulders of the speeder, but those of everyone supporting the ban.

Dennis Phillips
Mililani

New tax proposal dismaying to tourists

I read with dismay that the Hawai'i Legislature is considering a measure to allow counties to tack on another $5 a day on rental cars.

Before doing that, legislators should actually rent a car (not using their kama'aina discount) for a month or so. Then add to that the price of an airline ticket and ask themselves if they would be willing to spend that kind of money for a trip to "Paradise."

Every year when I visit, I learn of another tax that the politicians want to impose on tourists. Sales tax, transient occupancy tax, $3 a day on rental cars (soon to be $8?) and so on.

Required reading for legislators and the mayor of Maui should be "The Goose that Laid the Golden Egg." As much as we love coming here (and we have been coming for over 15 years), it isn't the only desirable place on the planet.