Connector clients treated unfairly

It’s not too surprising that the newly insured at the Hawaii Health Connector have higher medical costs ("HMSA asks 49 percent hike on care act plans," Star-Advertiser, June 3).

It’s also not too surprising that Hawaii Medical Service Association is undermining health care reform, since the insurance industry was the one and only part of the health care system that opposed the Affordable Care Act.

What is surprising is that HMSA is treating the Connector as a separate risk pool. What is the rationale for that?

Health insurance works by pooling diverse risks in a large enough pool. If HMSA treated those with cancer or diabetes as a separate risk pool, of course their costs would be extraordinarily high. Most agree that charging them enormous premiums would be unacceptable.

In a way, treating Connector clients as a risk pool is more unfair. Like Grant Togashi in the article, not everyone buying insurance through the Connector is higher risk. The solution is to put these people into HMSA’s bigger risk pool, not raise their premiums by nearly 50 percent.

James Richardson
Associate professor of management, Shidler College of Business University of Hawaii at Manoa

Ho‘opili means loss of fresh food

Sitting with my family at dinner yesterday, the sweet juice from an Aloun Farms watermelon dripping down our chins, I took another bite of the cool, crisp fruit and savored the fresh sweetness.

I can’t help but wonder where our watermelons (or kabocha squash or pumpkins) will come from once 11,000 Ho‘opili homes occupy the land where this food has been so plentifully grown.

Jan Pappas
Aiea

Hawaiians have right to be leery

For centuries, European science has promised enrichment while facilitating impoverishment for colonized and exploited peoples.

Native Hawaiians and their allies have every reason to be circumspect of these current purveyors, attempting to invoke ruling-class largess as some kind of legitimacy for their intentions to add value by building on Mauna Kea.

How could they imagine, knowing full well the history of deceit that litters the social landscape of these islands, that their plans to exploit the natural advantages here could be procured at any price from a dignified and experienced people, grounded in a culture of nurturing and protecting the aina? This is a potent measure of their hubris and exposes the bankruptcy of their system.

Those who stand for pono and truth courageously invite all to experience aloha, an understand- ing infinitely more expansive than the cosmos some claim a desire to observe.

Stephen Paulmier
Hilo

Court should reject TMT bid

The Hawaii Supreme Court is bypassing the Intermediate Court of Appeals and will address the Thirty Meter Telescope issue directly.

The state Board of Land and Natural Resources and the University of Hawaii insist on allowing this venture with a footprint of four football fields, and a height of 18 stories, to be built on conservation-zone sacred Mauna Awakea.

UH is irresponsibly promoting TMT as the world’s largest telescope and the tallest building on the island while apologizing for past negligence in the caretaking the mountain. Many see this proposal as a blatant contradiction.

Acriterion required before construction is allowed on this protected zone is "tolerating the least degree of development" ("High court agrees to hear case," Star-Advertiser, June 6).

As one of the 31 arrested April 2 as a practitioner in the spirit of Aloha Aina, I could not allow continued desecrationof the Mauna. We repeat, we are not against science; our mountain is just the wrong place for the TMT.

Moanike‘ala Akaka
Hilo

GET surcharge to never end?

Five more years of the half-percent general excise tax surcharge following sunset of the current law in 2022 — why now?

Let me try to understand the wisdom of this bill passed by our Legislature.

» The 0.5 percent GET surcharge for residents of Oahu is to provide funds to complete the acquisition of the Honolulu rail system.

» The rail system is scheduled to become operational in 2019.

» The proposed GET extension will be in effect until 2027.

Why would there be need for rail system acquisition eight years after completion in 2019? Should not the acquisition phase be completed prior to the current law expiration in 2022?

Enactment of this law now appears premature and probably imprudent. Surely, should a valid need for more funds materialize by 2019, this matter could be addressed and resolved prior to 2022. Or are we conceding now that cost overruns are foreordained?

Kay Kimura
Waialae

Hawaii always will cost a lot

I have heard 30 years of repetitious cries for affordable homes. There’s been little relief.

Wishful dreaming that the government can fix this problem is foolishness. Factors like the costs of land and construction in Hawaii create the highest home prices in the nation.

It’s not a government conspiracy to hurt people, it’s business in paradise. Unfortunately, housing in Hawaii will always be a financial struggle for most working people.

Residents having problems should strive to create an affordable lifestyle using family planning, downsizing and budgeting. If that fails, we also have the option of relocating to a cheaper state to pursue our lives.

Hawaii will always be expensive. Living within one’s means isn’t easy but necessary. Government is not responsible for your happiness. There will always be homelessness and poverty. Affordable housing is not the only answer.

Personal responsibility and making wise choices are the key to less stress and a happier life.

Marc Emerson
Hawaii Kai

Haseko owes buyers a marina

The editorial, "Revised plan for Ewa Beach raises flags" is right on the mark (Star-Advertiser, Our View, June 7).

When I bought my Ewa Beach home 38 years ago, it was with the promisethat Herbert K. Horita was going to build a marina.

Horita sold to Haseko, which perpetuated the marina dream.

A few years ago, Haseko did the math and found out that they could make more money in building homes than a marina, so it decided to change its plans to a small brackish water lagoon named "Wai Kai."

Wai Kai lagoon will be a paid-permit-only water activities pool for the Haseko association, not open to the public for free like the Ko Olina lagoons.

Sharene Saito Tam, Haseko’s vice president claims they’ve done their best to be a good neighbor to the community — a hollow claim when residents have sued Haseko three times and have a pending lawsuit to force Haseko to follow their own permits and published promises.

Garry P. Smith
Ewa Beach