Recent editorials from West Virginia newspapers:
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March 13
The Herald-Dispatch on proposed voter ID legislation:
It seems like it was just last year that the West Virginia Legislature debated and approved a bill that modified identification requirements for voters in the Mountain State, basically requiring them for the first time to show some form of identification before they can cast a ballot. In fact, it was just a year ago.
So why is the legislature revisiting it now, even before the legislation that was passed last year goes into effect on July 1?
House Bill 2781 was introduced during the current session and as written would significantly reduce the options for voters to provide identification for voting. Under the new proposal, the only acceptable forms of identification would be a valid West Virginia driver’s license; a West Virginia DMV-issued photo ID card; a valid driver’s license issued in any other state; a valid U.S. passport; a valid federal or state government-issued employee identification card; and a valid U.S. military identification card. The law still would allow for provisional ballots to be cast until election authorities can verify the identity of a voter without a valid photo ID and determine whether that person’s vote would be counted. However, that creates more hassle for voters.
Under the legislation passed last year and now state law, voters had far more options. Those included state- and federal-issued identification, regardless of associated photo, including voter ID cards; any government permits; any college- or high school-issued ID; a health insurance card; a utility bill from six months prior to the election; a bank card or bank statement from six months prior to the election; or verification from another adult, including a poll worker who has known the voter for at least six months and will sign an affidavit to that effect.
It’s unclear why the bill passed last year was acceptable then and apparently is no longer up to snuff, at least to the nine Republican delegates who are sponsoring the new legislation. But the upshot of the proposed changes are pretty clear and was spelled out aptly by Del. Chad Lovejoy, D-Cabell. He noted during a House Judiciary Committee meeting on the new bill last week that the proposed required forms of identification mean that voters would need to either serve in the military, work for the government or pay money to vote if they do not already have one of the required pieces of identification.
Viewed from that perspective, it seems critics of the legislation might be correct in saying the measure would suppress voter participation.
Presumably, the motivation for the new proposal is to combat voter fraud. But the type of fraud that such a voter ID bill as this would address - one person trying to impersonate another voter at the polls - is rare, according to various studies by the government and other groups. West Virginia’s new secretary of state campaigned last fall partly on a platform of rooting out voter fraud, yet has not provided any examples of people impersonating eligible voters to cast ballots.
This legislation is misguided and will only impose an unnecessary hardship on a portion of West Virginia residents. The law approved last year is adequate, and lawmakers should give it a chance to work before meddling with it further.
Online:
https://www.herald-dispatch.com/
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March 12
The Register-Herald on the proposed replacement of the Affordable Care Act:
West Virginians should take note: the Republican-led Congress is coming for your health care - with President Donald Trump’s blessing.
Based on our reading of the proposed replacement of the Affordable Care Act, the GOP’s health care plan works out pretty well for young, urban elites - a voting block (minus the Trump children) that cast its lot with Hillary Clinton last fall. And who takes the hit? Older, rural, working-class citizens - people who voted for Trump.
Does that demographic sound familiar? Yes, it is the very definition of the Mountain State and of sizable voting populations across the Midwest that delivered Trump’s stunning election night surprise.
But don’t take our word for it. Here’s the headline from the far right via Brietbart News, one of the modern-day conservative’s most trusted news sources: “7 reasons why “Obamacare” 2.0 is all but guaranteed to impose crushing costs on voters, hurt Trump’s base, and hand power back to the Democrats.”
From the left, here’s Nate Cohn of the New York Times: “The voters hit the hardest - eligible for at least $5,000 less in tax credits under the Republican plan - supported Mr. Trump by a margin of 59 percent to 36 percent.”
AARP jumped into the conversation as well. In a pair of examples to show just how grotesque the results of this plan are, the organization did an analysis and came up with this real-world example: a 55-year-old making $25,000 a year would end up paying $3,600 a year more for coverage.
Sound like anyone you know?
How about this person: The insurance cost jumps to $8,400 for a 64-year-old making $15,000 a year.
It doesn’t take an Einstein to know that the end result is this: more people will be unable to pay the freight and drop their insurance. When they do that, insurance companies will have fewer paying customers. When that happens, insurance companies will charge more for those who remain. When uninsured people - in growing numbers - show up at emergency rooms for treatment, they will be stitched back together, bandaged up and sent on their way. Left behind will be a bill they cannot pay. Small rural hospitals, whose uncompensated care debts have been declining in recent years - thanks to the ACA - will bear the weight of that until they can’t. Their hospital doors will close, putting access to health care further out of reach for those most in need.
Consider this America’s health care death spiral, spun by politicians who have no interest in writing sound policy. Their interests are pure politics and party dogma: They have promised for years that they would repeal “Obamacare.” So, now that they run the White House and both chambers of Congress, they are charging ahead, ignoring the collateral damage and delivering on a promise that was built on telling the American people falsehoods about the ACA all along.
Remember the supposed “death panels”?
Here’s the GOP’s problem: to make health care insurance work, the country has to provide lower-income families enough support that insurance becomes affordable. What this bill does is ditch taxes on the rich that help pay for those subsidies.
So, yes, the GOP plan is a Robin Hood strategy in reverse: take from the poor and give to the rich.
If the legislation becomes law, it will be a flaming disaster for West Virginia, a state already under serious economic stress. A Keiser Family Foundation study found that low and moderate income families in 52 of the state’s 55 counties - including all of those in the coalfields - would have their health care subsidies slashed, some by as much as 45 percent.
We note that Sen. Shelley Moore Capito has expressed her concern with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. Rep. Evan Jenkins stated, via a press release, that he is reading the bill. Well, that’s nice, but it if they are looking for feedback, they might consider holding town hall forums back in their home state.
Meanwhile, just know that the candidate (Trump) and the party (GOP) that promised good things for working class Americans are preparing to make your lives a whole lot more difficult to manage.
The hammer is about to fall. Put on your hard hat.
Online:
https://www.register-herald.com
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March 12
The Bluefield Daily Telegraph on the state’s overdose death rates:
West Virginia is still leading the nation in terms of overdose death rates. That’s the grim conclusion of a new analysis by the West Virginia Health Statistic Center, which reported an alarming 818 overdose deaths in the Mountain State in 2016.
The study found that 703 of those deaths involved at least one opioid. That’s a stark contrast from 2001, when only 212 overdose deaths were reported statewide. Every year since, overdose deaths have steadily increased in the state, with the exception of 2009, which saw small declines in both overdose deaths and opioid-related deaths.
“We are seeing an unprecedented rise in the overdose deaths related to opioids,” Dr. Rahul Gupta, West Virginia state health officer and commissioner of the Department of Health and Human Resources’ Bureau for Public Health, told the Register-Herald in Beckley last week. “It seems we have not yet peaked.”
Gupta says West Virginia continues to lead the nation in overdose death rates. And while surrounding states are dealing with the same problem, the statistics are not even close.
“We’re leading surrounding states by about 30 percent,” Gupta said. “It’s a unique problem in West Virginia, although the rest of the nation is suffering from the same problem.”
While the number of opioids prescribed in the state has been decreasing, many addicts haven’t been deterred, turning instead to more readily available and cheaper alternatives for their fix, including heroin, which is often contaminated with other substances like fentanyl or carfentanil.
“This is a criminal justice problem, a behavioral health problem,” Gupta said. “But more than anything, it’s a public health problem. It has transcended all the sub-groups we tend to have.”
Given the alarming new statistics, we believe it is imperative for officials to address the overdose death rate on multiple fronts, including through legislation, law enforcement, education and community awareness. Gupta is correct. This is a public health problem. It’s also a crisis that can’t be ignored.
If we don’t act now, we risk losing more lives to the opioid epidemic.
Online:
https://www.bdtonline.com/
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