Letters February 20, 2008

Wednesday, February 20, 2008

By Planet User

Follow-up needed
I just read “Bankrupt for Baby” and it prompts enough questions for another feature article.

First: “Midwifery is illegal in Wyoming.” Why? This sounds like an issue for the legislature. Has it come up before? Who supported it? Who blocked it? Who are the special interests that won’t legalize midwifery in this state?

Second: “It costs a lot of money to have a baby.” Why?  I know a couple of the reasons: the expensive, latest technology demanded by doctors and patients; the high overhead for the professionals involved. I also know that the statute of limitations on an obstetrician’s liability for a newborn is 21 years. My guess is that if you added up all the malpractice premiums paid by the people in the delivery room you’d come up with a pretty hefty percentage of the cost of having a baby. So, I can identify at least one special interest, trial lawyers, who are behind the high cost of having a baby.

Third: “Most maternity benefits have been eliminated from heath insurance policies.” Why? This one has me flummoxed. I would be interested in hearing from some of the Wyoming insurance carriers who have dropped maternity benefits on this subject.
- Marti Halverson
Etna, WY

<From the Editor: Lay, or ‘direct-entry,’ midwifery was outlawed in Wyoming in 2003. A bill to legalize it was defeated in the legislature in 2005. The state mandated that only registered nurses with certain qualifications are eligible to practice regulated home births in Wyoming. The Planet will explore the state’s legislation of midwifery in-depth in an upcoming issue.>

It’s not a slur
NIMBY (not in my backyard) has become Jackson Hole’s version of the “N” word, used to disparage and vilify people – anyone who criticizes a developer’s dense housing project like Teton Meadows. Selfish people. Unfeeling. Close-the-door types, just looking out for themselves.

Yet it is the best of Wyoming - to care about your family, your neighbors, and your neighborhood. It is good to care deeply about your community. It is good to be able to engage in community debate on the merits, without being vilified by others with a different perspective.

Our fundamental problems are very simple. With an increasingly mobile global workforce, and vast amounts of money being directed at the world’s most beautiful places, there is an extremely important need for checks and balances in places like Jackson Hole. Not a matter of shutting the door on growth, but a matter of being cautious and prudent in the face of very strong pressures for aggressive growth.
Jackson Hole cannot house everyone who wants to live here, now and in the future.

Government efforts at “social engineering” can cause more problems than they solve. Our real focus should be on housing key local infrastructure people – such as teachers, nurses, EMTs, law enforcement people – where the local housing is (and remains) keyed to that work.

For all of us, we have a duty and an obligation to help conserve the priceless national treasure and the great community that is Jackson Hole. Not just the spectacular scenery and wildlife resources, but the open and friendly small town Western character that still is Jackson Hole today. Not many of us want to see Jackson Hole become a densely populated urban area (a very expensive urban area, at that!) on the southern boundary of the Greater Yellowstone ecosystem.
-Peter F. Moyer
Jackson, Wyo.

Unwrap the buses
My husband and I recently visited Jackson Hole and used your bus transportation for one day. We could barely see out the windows so we rented a car to sightsee. We’re from Florida and totally enjoyed the beauty of your area.

The back of the bus says something like “a ride with a view,” but the buses we rode in definitely did not have a view because of the wraps on them.

If you are getting hefty advertising money for the wraps, I suppose that’s good.  But if you are not, it seems to me to be a big waste of the city’s money.
- Nancy Edenfield
Maitland, Florida
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Letters February 20, 2008 | Planet JH News Article: Letters To Editor

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