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It is important for the Legislature to pass bills to ensure access to services for mental health treatment conducted over the telephone, specifically Senate Bill 2645.
Audio sessions are currently covered under the governor’s emergency proclamation but that will eventually expire. House Bill 1980 would place restrictions on insurance reimbursement while SB 2073 would ensure coverage for health in general.
During the pandemic, audio has become the preferred mode of treatment for many, especially rural residents, seniors, persons earning less than $50,000 a year and racial minorities. Medicare and some insurance companies fully insure audio mental health sessions, but HMSA is concerned that there may be runaway costs.
Research shows that mental health care actually reduces overall health costs.
Research also indicates that telephone mental health sessions are just as effective as video and in-person sessions.
Alex Lichton
Kailua
Hawaii’s military vets should lead government
As I read the newspaper and watch the local news, I have so many topics that I’m concerned about, and to write about, I don’t know where to start: the corruption at state and city levels; the incompetence of state and city agencies that results in costs to our citizens; the ongoing homeless issue that just keeps growing; tourism issues, including illegal rentals; and drunken drivers who get off with a slap on the hand and continue to get arrested or cause wrecks and deaths.
For a state that is such a tourist draw, we sure look like a Third-World nation.
After World War II, the Hawaii Japanese-American military members returned from war and became leading proponents and influencers in our then-territory and eventual state.
It now appears that we need the latest military veterans to step up and, much like their predecessors, throw out the current permanent politicians and reboot and put our state back to a place where we all want to live and of which we can be proud.
Larry Dove
Waipahu
Hogan, Kelley respected customers, employees
In December we lost Ed Hogan, co-founder with his wife Lynn of Pleasant Holidays predecessor companies, most notably Pleasant Hawaiian Holidays, at one time the single largest provider of visitors to our islands.
Last month we lost Richard “Doc” Kelley, the former longtime leader of Outrigger Hotels & Resorts, a true kamaaina company that treated its employees and guests with a genuine aloha spirit.
For those of us who had the pleasure of knowing and working with these gentlemen, we know they were the giants of the visitor industry as well as amazing teachers of the art of customer service. In today’s world of immediacy, they remained most competitive but never lost their skill of treating people with respect and honoring their customers with their commitment to provide a quality experience.
The people of today’s visitor industry would do very well to learn about their leadership skills and their penchant for providing a quality experience.
Mahalo, Ed and Doc. I learned from both of you.
John Votsis
Retired hotel and airline executive
Kaimuki
Don’t ban responsible short-term rentals
My family and I have lived and worked in Hawaii for the past 17 years, and the ability to operate short-term rentals has allowed us to stay here. In addition to supporting my family economically, my short-term rentals also provide safe, private space for my aging parents to visit us on the island.
I work hard to ensure that my business benefits the community and that our guests do not cause any disturbances. We provide designated off-street parking, monitor noise and rent for 30-day periods. Our short-term rental income also allows us to contribute to local charities.
If passed, Bill 41 would ban even the responsible short-term rental businesses like mine.
The City Council should implement Ordinance 19-18, an existing short-term rental law that has yet to be enforced, before imposing a ban that would hurt our community.
Scott Brazwell
Kailua
Republicans fear Trump, who supports Putin
The Star-Advertiser puff piece on Hawaii Republican Party chair Lynn Finnegan and the column by Marc Thiessen about what President Joe Biden should have said about Ukraine beg the question by omitting their opinion of twice-impeached former President Trump’s support of and admiration for Russian President Vladimir Putin (“Lynn Finnegan,” Star-Advertiser, 5 Questions With …, March 4; “What Biden should have said about Ukraine in SOTU speech,” Star-Advertiser, March 4).
Are Finnegan and Thiessen so afraid of the wrath of Trump and his minions that they ignore the elephant in the room (pun intended) — that the leader of their party is providing aid and comfort to a vicious dictator? Abraham Lincoln would not recognize his party.
John Priolo
Pearl City
Compare Zelenskyy to current president
Hawaii is 99.9% Democrat, a one-party, heavily unionized state. So why do people still rail against Donald J. Trump, who is no longer president? A reader said Volodymyr Zelenskyy of Ukraine was a true leader compared to Trump, who is not the present leader of our country (“Zelenskyy shows Trump what courage means,” Star- Advertiser, Letters, March 4).
The reader should instead compare Zelenskyy to President Joe Biden, a weak leader at best, who is the present leader of our country.
Donald Graber
Kakaako
We cannot allow Putin to repeat Hitler’s actions
Recalling the 1930s and 1940s, will the world stand by as President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and members of his government are executed by the war criminal Vladimir Putin, just as 6 million Jews and undesirables were exterminated by Adolf Hitler while the world was in denial?
If the world lets this happen, we are no better, or have no higher moral ground, than the villains we loathe and revile. Regardless of Ukraine’s treaty status or standing in the world’s order, Putin must be stopped at all costs and by all means.
James Roller
Mililani
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