Recent editorials from North Carolina newspapers:
Dec. 22
The Herald Sun of Durham on holiday travel:
Observers who are looking for a sign that the economy might be on a subtle upswing will not have far to look this holiday season.
AAA Carolinas reported recently that holiday travel in North Carolina is expected to rise by 2 percent. One of the main reasons for that is that gas prices have shown a much-welcomed decline. Recently, the per-gallon price of regular gas was $3.23, quite a lot lower than the mid-September peak of $3.85 and 8 cents a gallon lower than the price around Thanksgiving.
Because of higher inventory and lower demand, the price of gas is expected to remain steady or fall slightly over this holiday season.
AAA Carolinas says that 90 percent of the nearly 2.8 million North Carolina residents who will travel more than 50 miles over the holidays are drivers, with 6 percent planning to take to the airlines. The average holiday trip is expected to be 765 miles, longer than 726 last year.
Setting aside the risk of sounding too optimistic, the increase in total number of travelers and the distance to be traveled is a sign that more folks in North Carolina are willing to spend the money and time to travel over the holidays — a good sign that more residents are feeling economically secure and willing to spend money, aided by the lower fuel prices we have seen.
With more people heading to North Carolina highways, it is worth pointing out that more crowded roads mean more delays and a degree of potential danger. Last year, 56 people died in crashes in North Carolina over the holidays, about five fatalities per day. “Besides being the longest holiday travel period of the year, the Christmas/New Year’s holiday is one of the most dangerous,” said David E. Parsons, president and CEO of AAA Carolinas, in a statement. “Motorists should be patient with road congestion and obey all traffic laws.”
Police are also increasing patrols over the holidays in an effort to protect travelers from impaired drivers, through the Booze It & Lose It campaign, which is in effect through Jan. 2. That effort includes sobriety checkpoints.
Patience is a virtue when traveling over the holidays, whether it is by car or plane. Respect for fellow travelers is good for everyone, and makes for a much more pleasant experience.
Online:
http://www.heraldsun.com
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Dec. 23
Winston-Salem Journal on the state’s methamphetamine problem:
North Carolina’s methamphetamine problem is growing again, but the latest “solution” to the crisis from a legislative study commission is not the right answer.
Pseudoephedrine, a key ingredient in many cold remedies, is also essential to preparing meth, and over the years the state has made it more difficult to get over-the-counter medicines containing it. Now legislators are considering requiring a prescription for any remedy containing pseudoephedrine. North Carolinians with colds would need a doctor to write it and a pharmacist to fill it.
Some statistics indicate that in Oregon and Mississippi, the only two states requiring prescriptions for these remedies, meth use has fallen dramatically.
Over the years, the Journal has endorsed every one of the previous measures to restrict access to the large quantities of pseudoephedrine needed to cook meth. But we can’t endorse this one.
First, as columnist Scott Mooneyham of the Capitol Press Association points out, the statistics from Oregon are open to wide interpretation given that California and Washington, neighboring states without a prescription law, have seen similar decreases. That indicates that heightened law enforcement is the true cause of the drop.
Second, a prescription requirement is simply too burdensome for people with colds. It will require more time to get the medicine and those with sniffles will face a doctor’s bill and the higher cost of a prescription drug.
Legislators should find another way to fight meth without putting cold medicine out of the reach of those who need it.
Online:
http://www.journalnow.com
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Dec. 20
News & Observer of Raleigh on WakeMed settlement:
One important factor in the embarrassing $8 million settlement WakeMed had to make with the federal government is that this was not a case of anyone putting ill-gotten gains into his or her own pocket. Instead, the extra money from charges to Medicare for heart patients who stayed overnight went to WakeMed’s coffers.
Only, it turns out, a lot of them didn’t stay overnight. So Medicare overpaid. Federal prosecutors investigated (should the hospital’s own auditors have discovered this long ago?) and were not happy. Bill Atkinson, the hospital system’s president and CEO, seemed to blame the situation on a misinterpretation of complicated Medicare rules. Doubtless Atkinson, loyal to his employees, believes that.
But he did sign off on a multimillion-dollar settlement. And people either spend the night or they don’t, a fact that’s not really open to interpretation. So something was going wrong here. The hospital says it has taken measures to see that this doesn’t happen again.
That’s good, because U.S. Attorney Thomas Walker sounded unhappy when he said, “This case will serve as a reminder that hospitals, just like individual health care providers, will be held accountable for their actions.” He noted that Medicare depends on providers to submit accurate and honest bills.
Hospitals can cure many things, but when something is wrong at the hospital itself, the remedy must come from the outside. In this case, federal auditors and Walker’s office provided the right assessment and treatment.
WakeMed, a public hospital before its conversion to private not-for-profit in 1997, has served county citizens and those from other counties for over 50 years. This mistake, and it was a big mistake, does not diminish that history.
http://www.newsobserver.com
