Mobile-home park laws punish site owners

Re: “Keeping parks in local hands,” May 28 news story

As the owner of a Colorado mobile home park, I continue to watch in frustration the relentless, misguided and slanted attacks on our industry over the past few years, which has resulted in a torrent of laws and proposals eroding our property rights and making it difficult to operate our businesses. This is justified by tales being told about impoverished residents preyed upon by rapacious landlords. Yet if mobile home parks are such a bad deal, why are many full with waiting lists in Colorado?

The right-of-first-refusal law feels like a confiscation of property and should be unconstitutional. I should be allowed to sell my own property to a buyer and on terms I choose without government interference. If these laws were in place all along, there would not be a single mobile home park in the state.

If the state wants to increase handouts to lower-income folks generally, fine, but to target one particular group of residents, who happen to reside in mobile home parks, and to grant them property rights confiscated from a certain particular group of property owners is not fine.

In the past several years, the legislature and media seem quite determined to punish investors in non-luxury rental housing while at the same time declaring their top priority is the need to retain and attract more of that type of housing; their actions are not just wrong and unconstitutional, they are stupid.

— Robert Rosenfeld, St. Louis

Democrats let down labor

Re: “Polis vetoes effort to expand cash tipping law,” May 25 news story

Recently, Gov. Jared Polis vetoed a law that would have expanded the types of employees who could receive tips. This action comes on the heels of the failure of the legislature to pass a law that would give employees more reliable work schedules. It’s worth noting that the Democrats control the governor’s administration and the legislature.

It should also be pointed out that this comes after President Joe Biden, who claims to be pro-union, forced a contract onto multiple rail unions that opposed the deal.

It appears that at both the national and state levels, the Democratic Party has abandoned its roots as a party that stood up for working people.

Frankly, if this nonsense continues, working Coloradans should not bother voting for or otherwise supporting either party; they’re both owned by the chamber of commerce and big business.

— Thomas Johnson, Aurora

The true purpose of health insurance: profit

Re: “To cover or not: What tips the scale?” May 31 news story

You report that doctors are now being denied medicines for their own medical conditions by health insurance companies. Good. Perhaps this will begin to convince the American people that the current system is irrevocably broken.

Most Americans probably believe that health insurance is there primarily to help them pay for health care. This is a myth. Health insurance, like all insurance products, is designed to collect the highest premiums possible while paying the fewest number of claims so as to maximize the profits for the owners of the health insurance provider. Nothing more, nothing less.

A major health insurance company spends, on average, 1.2 seconds evaluating a claim before rejecting it, according to an investigation by ProPublica. This clearly indicates that they have established a system in which the vast majority of claims are disapproved automatically. Those who appeal may get some redress, while those who do not simply add to the company’s bottom line.

In 2022 Cigna, the company that rejected claims in 1.2 seconds, made $6.7 billion in net revenue.

— Guy Wroble, Denver