Santa Clara Family Health Plan (SCFHP) is our county’s local, public not-for-profit health plan, providing Medi-Cal coverage for residents. Access to primary care is essential to the health of our members.

SCFHP works diligently to strengthen and retain our network of dedicated providers, and to ensure that members are connected to a primary care physician (PCP) for their care. New members select a PCP or have one assigned immediately upon enrollment, and can change their PCP at any time.

For many members, physicians at community clinics offer a convenient, culturally appropriate medical home for their routine care. This connection to a PCP contributes to SCFHP members’ relatively low rate of ER utilization, ranking in the bottom 10th percentile for Medicaid members nationwide (per standardized NCQA HEDIS methodology). In partnership with hundreds of PCPs who work with us, SCFHP is committed to ensuring our members receive high quality, comprehensive health care.

Christine M. Tomcala
CEO, Santa Clara
Family Health Plan

Give Obama his due for improving economy

I found Craig Carpenter’s letter amusing. He claims (Letters, May 15) that Apple made an investment of $200 million in Corning because Donald Trump is the president. I am sure the analysis on the viability of an investment of that size likely started months before Trump took office.

He also claims that Trump will repatriate the $2.5 trillion held overseas by corporations to kick-start the economy. Repatriation of overseas cash will not create jobs because based on history, corporations will use the cash for stock buybacks. Finally, he talks about the “moribund” economy under Barack Obama. When Obama took office, the unemployment rate was 9.3 percent and steadily dropped to 4.9 percent by the end of his presidency. That is an objective measure of a well managed economy.

Santosh Ghirnikar
Sunnyvale

Providing essential services is crucial to serving the people

Peter Guerin (Letters, May 17) brings up an interesting question: In a purely capitalist society, should citizens expect the right to universal health care? The answer, of course, is a resounding no. Neither should those citizens expect the right to clean air and pure water, or the right to expect that next bite of hamburger to be uncontaminated by bacteria. Safe travel, consumer protection, and even equal protection under the law would not be a priority. All these things would impinge on someone’s right to maximize their profit margin.

What could they do to avoid such a gloomy, dystopian society? They could establish a government of the people, by the people, and for the people to provide those socialistic needs like national defense, environmental protection, consumer protection, and, of course, universal health care. If you still want to experience capitalism in its pure form, perhaps you should spend a little time in a place like Somalia.

Raymond Jones
San Jose

Trump isn’t the first president to come under attack

So no other president has been treated so badly and unfairly as poor Donald Trump. Actually every other president in history was viciously attacked by the press, the opposing party, and even members of their own. That is called politics, and it comes with the territory. The difference is that they all put on their big boy pants and did their job, well or not so well, without looking for someone to blame for everything that went wrong.

Dan Greenbank
San Jose

How to really make America great again

During the 2016 presidential campaign, Jeb Bush was prescient in saying that Donald Trump was a “chaos candidate” and that he’d be a “chaos president”. Trump’s disastrous campaign marked by weekly scandals managed to win an unlikely victory and has transformed into an ongoing train wreck of a presidency plagued by weekly scandals.

Most of us aren’t prescient but it seems safe to predict that the current administration will mark one of the lowest points of our nation’s political history. America won’t be great again until the Trump administration is just a bad memory. Right now, it’s just a bad presidency.

Eddie Serapio
Fremont

Tax cuts will only increase deficits in the long run

Craig Carpenter (Letters, May 15) is far too quick to credit Donald Trump for the current economic growth. He doesn’t seem to realize that the economy and job market is a like an oil tanker. It has huge momentum and changes course only gradually. Thus, the current expansion could be attributed to Obama administration policies, or just economic cycles.

Apple’s relatively small investment in Corning, a company it has historically done business with, is hardly evidence of Trump influence. Trump’s proposed tax cuts will provide only temporary economic stimulus and increase federal budget deficits in the long run. If we’re on the verge of a small boom, the economy doesn’t need additional stimulus right now.

Joe Rogers
Sunnyvale

When will Trump supporters see the light?

It will be a cold day in hell before Israel again shares intelligence information with the United States. Is there an incompetence level low enough for Donald Trump to sink that will make his supporters say — enough — this person does not belong in the White House? I don’t know which is more frightening — President Trump, or the people who continue to support and defend his behavior, no matter how egregious.

Barbara Barko
San Jose

Source: http://www.mercurynews.com/