Toll Roads
Gov. Schwarzenegger’s “Go California” plan to revive transportation projects in our state is critical to California’s prosperity.
Without transportation improvements, our state will suffer from increased congestion, longer commutes and less viable options for California businesses.
In 2002, the people of California decided that they had had enough with our overcrowded roads and highways. They passed Proposition 42, the Transportation Congestion Improvement Act, mandating that revenue from the sale of gasoline be spent on transportation projects.
This year, the governor stepped up his “Go California” plan by proposing infrastructure bonds. He has been committed to finding new and creative ways of funding new roads and highways in an attempt to ease our congestion problems.
One method that Schwarzenegger has identified is public-private partnerships, specifically toll roads.
The advantage of toll roads is that they quickly create highways funded by users until the cost of the highway is paid. At that time, the toll is eliminated, and the road becomes a freeway.
For areas such as Orange County that experience heavy traffic congestion, toll roads are an immediate and viable solution to the problem.
They relieve bottlenecks on our state’s main highways as they create a more direct and alternative route for many commuters.
In Orange County alone, we have already built 51 miles of a 67-mile system of toll roads that have served to relieve much of the congestion on our freeways. The final 16 miles that complete the toll road system is Foothill-South, the last stretch of road to be completed on the 241.
Upon completion, Foothill-South will connect northern Orange County and Riverside County to southern Orange County and San Diego County.
Commuters who once were forced to travel through the heart of Orange County to get from Riverside to San Diego will soon be able to travel a more direct route to their destination, bypassing central Orange County’s congested freeways.
Providing additional routes alleviates congestion on all surrounding roads and highways and gives commuters more choices, reducing the amount of time spent in their cars.
Toll roads are not the entire answer to our traffic congestion, but they are a critical component.
Mimi Walters
Assemblywoman
R-Laguna Niguel
Healthcare
As required by our Constitution, President Bush recently gave “to the Congress information of the state of the union.”
But most of the proposals he made were out of bounds according to the 10th Amendment to that same Constitution: “The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the People.”
The president and Congress are determined to slow the growth rate for Medicare spending.
Current laws require decreasing the dollar amount paid to doctors for their work. As a result, fewer doctors will be able to afford to treat Medicare recipients.
Although the president says he seeks to “strengthen the doctor-patient relationship,” his Drug Enforcement Administration treats doctors as if they were criminals.
Unfortunately, Bush didn’t propose reining in capricious and damaging DEA prosecutions that violate patient and doctor rights and undermine the doctor-patient relationship.
Bush did address the lawsuits and excessive jury awards that are forcing doctors to practice more defensive medicine, and pay hundreds of thousands of dollars for liability insurance in some instances.
As Bush says, “lawsuits are driving many good doctors out of practice, leaving women in nearly 1,500 American counties without a single OB/GYN.”
To curb this injustice, Bush proposes another government intervention,Medical Liability Reform.
A press release claims this would give us “proven, common-sense reforms” that limit punitive and non-economic damages, restrict the filing of years-old cases and provide that judgments against defendants are “in proportion to their fault.”
Bush also wants to improve information technology in the healthcare system. He proposes spending $100 million to harmonize standards and develop models for an Internet-based health information system.
Translation: “Harmonize” means “dictate.”
George W. sounds more and more like his supposed opponents, the Democrats. He seems to be adopting the “For every problem, I have a program” socialist approach.
The president made several proposals for strengthening Health Savings Accounts, which help “individuals and small business employees buy insurance with the same advantages that people working for big businesses now get.”
This is an important nod in the direction of reducing the “third party” problem or “moral hazard” inherent in insurance: When both the patient and doctor think of insurance, the third party, as paying the bill, they spend 50% more than if the patient had to pay out of pocket, according to a classic Rand Corp. study.
Enrollment in HSAs has tripled in a year, to three million.
People with these accounts tend to get away from the “world-owes-me-perfect-health entitlement” mentality.
We like HSAs, and applaud many of the president’s HSA reforms.
But, getting back to the Constitution, a more effective and infinitely simpler approach would be: no tax deductions for health insurance or healthcare.
We look forward to the day when the president has nothing to say about healthcare in his State of the Union address,because government is no longer involved.
Robert J. Cihak, M.D.
Michael Arnold Glueck, M.D.
(Dr. Cihak, of Seattle, is past president of the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons. Dr. Glueck, of Newport Beach, comments on medical-legal issues.)
