LETTERS to the Editor

Earth Fest is April 24

To the editor,

Earth Fest 2022 is a free community event at Glen Park in River Falls on Sunday, April 24 from 2-5 p.m. Hope for Creation-River Falls and several other community partners have collaborated to make this exciting and unique community gathering a reality as a part of this April’s commemoration of Earth Month. We hope you will join in this celebration of caring for the Earth, our community, and the beauty of the area in which we live and work. A full description of the many Earth Fest activities is found on our website: hope4creationrf.org.

We would like to draw attention to a special activity that will occur at approximately 4:15 p.m. on the Sunday of Earth Fest, when Hope for Creation, along with its several partners and contributors, will take time to acknowledge and thank the many “Covid heroes and heroines” who have helped us through these life-altering challenges that arrived in 2020 with the pandemic.

While we will not acknowledge individuals, we will spend some time recognizing such groups as medical professionals, educators, city and county workers, service providers, businesses, pastors and church staff, bus drivers, child-care workers, parents, librarians, police, grocery workers, take-out food providers… the list goes on.

If you were in any way part of helping others through the struggles, we invite you to Earth Fest 2022, where we will celebrate our Earth and say THANKS to YOU!

Gratefully, Mark Klapatch-Mathias, Earth Fest Co-Chair, UWRF Sustainability Coordinator; Mike Noreen, Chair of Earth Month, River Falls Conservation & Efficiency Coordinator/City Forester; Dr. Tom Westerhaus, Earth Fest Cochair, retired RF School Superintendent

Insist on traditional Medicare

To the editor,

The federal government is outsourcing the delivery of Medicare to for-profit organizations. I recently saw a message that said that 350,000 seniors had been switched to privatized Medicare. While government-run Medicare has overhead of just 2%, this privatized version called Medicare Advantage boasts of “profits” of 13 to 30%. It is a scam. These for-profit, Medicare part C / Medicare Advantage plans make exorbitant profits by reimbursing healthcare organizations less and providing lesser coverage to the enrollee. Check out report https://www.levernews.com/seniors-medicarebenefits- are-being-privatized-without-consent/ Privatized medical care is why the American health care system is so expensive. The companies charge more so they can make profits and please their investors. Privatizing Medicare allows for-profit insurers to offer privatized benefits through Medicare which results in unexpected costs for procedures and wrongful denials of care.

Patients might have willingly signed up for Medicare Advantage after being enticed by their advertising of “extra perks”, but they might also be automatically signed up for Medicare Advantage if they have visited a doctor in the past two years who was connected to that program.

This for-profit system was set up by the last administration and has been continued under the current administration. It issues a waiver that allows doctors to get kickbacks for entering patients into such for-profit plans even without the patient’s consent.

People need to understand their options. Do not believe the ads on TV. There are local Benefit Specialists in every county available to answer questions one might have. St. Croix County residents should contact St. Croix County Senior Center, 312 N. Park St., Roberts. WI 54023, phone 715-749-3755 for assistance. Pierce County residents should contact Pierce County Senior Center, 312 W. Main Street, Ellsworth, WI 54011, phone 715-273-5873. Or go the St. Croix County ADRC (https://www.sccwi.gov/153/Aging-Disability-Resource-Center), phone 715-381-4360. They are required to remain neutral and cannot show preference for any one type of plan/policy over another, but they can help you understand which providers are available to you with each plan.

Medicare Advantage represents a disassembling and destruction of our health care system. Don’t enroll in Medicare Advantage.

Insist on TRADIONAL MEDICARE.

Cheryl Maplethorpe Town of Clifton