SHIBA can help
Sunday, December 7, 2008 1:13 AM PST
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E-mail this articleDec. 7 Letters to the Editor
SHIBA can help
I have recently been training as a volunteer for the Senior Health Insurance Benefits Assistance (SHIBA) program and I have been amazed at how complex the rules for Medicare and Medicaid are. I want to remind all people on Medicare that help is available. In Columbia County, you can call the Scappoose Senior Center at (503) 543-2047 and schedule an appointment with a volunteer.
This is particularly important now, because changes for next year must be made by Dec. 31. If you miss that deadline, you can’t make changes until Nov. 15, 2009.
If you fell into the infamous “gap,” you should check to see if there is an insurance company that would cover your prescriptions less expensively. There are more than 40 plans available in Columbia County, each with their own prescription list. On top of that, the plans change every year so what was best last year may not be best now. You can check this yourself at www.medicare.gov, but if you need help, SHIBA can help you free of charge.
SHIBA volunteers can help with plan comparisons, problems with your plan, and answer your questions. They will work with those on Medicare and anyone trying to help someone on Medicare. I wish I had known about this program a few years ago when I was trying to help my mother make decisions about her plan.
Becky Frazier
St. Helens
A matter of perspective
If Inga Olson (Dec. 5 letter) could go back in time, I bet she’d find the Native Americans felt our ancestors were more like illegal aliens than immigrants.
Boyd R. Starr
Longview
Strike three
Our laws and our criminal justice system should lead us to higher principles that demonstrate a respect for life. Just recently a man got life in prison for shooting a dog while another man got 20 years for strangling a girl to death. Can anyone make sense of our sentencing laws?
Killing anything is bad news, but we have people right now serving their entire life in prison with no possibility of parole who have never hurt anyone. The Green River killer, who confessed to the premeditated murder of at least 48 women, is serving life in prison without the possibility of parole. We have three-strikers serving this very same sentence who have literally grabbed and attempted to grab a wallet three times.
One asked a merchant to “give me your money” then left the store with a change of heart. An attempted robbery is considered a strike, and it contributed to his life sentence. Another, a Navy veteran, suffered from a drug addiction and committed three second-degree robberies to basically get money for his drugs.
Besides the three-strikes law, the only other crime in Washington that carries this severe sentence is aggravated murder. When the punishment for being a serial killer and that for stealing a small amount of money is the same, there is something very flawed in our sentencing system.
Michaela Mosteller
Cathlamet
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