Letters to the editor - latimes.com For the birds Re "Seabird rescues up sharply," March 7 So, oil seeping naturally from the ocean floor off Santa Barbara is to blame for all these oil-soaked birds. I have a hard time believing that's all there is to it. Oil companies have drilled many a hole into the sea floor over the last 60-plus years and have sucked out many millions of barrels of crude. Surely that wouldn't have anything to do with leaks? Growing up in Long Beach and surfing Bolsa Chica in the early 1960s, I got used to cleaning tar off my feet, but it seemed that Huntington was as far south as the oil drifted back then. Now I live in Encinitas, and the tar makes it to here. I guess the natural seepage just gets worse the more we drill. John Woeckener Encinitas In defense of 'Obamacare' Re "A checkup of views on health reform," Business, March 2 I appreciated David Lazarus' column on some of the recent healthcare reforms under what critics refer to as "Obamacare." I would add the following: The new healthcare reform law eliminates the preexisting conditions loophole by insurance companies for children, and it will do the same for adults in a few years; it wiped out insurance caps or lifetime limits for the insured; it gives women expanded breast screenings; it prohibits dropping people who become "too sick;" and it allows young people to stay on their parents' insurance plans until age 26. Seniors also received a rebate to help pay for prescription drug costs until the "doughnut hole" is eliminated. The new healthcare law needs to be given time to work. President Obama has not been given enough credit in helping to bring about much-needed healthcare reform for Americans. Mark C. Salvaggio Bakersfield The Lazarus article hit the nail right on the head. I constantly hear from my friends about how they "hate Obamacare" and can't wait to get it repealed. I usually tell them about people I know who are positively affected by it. My wife, for example, would be uninsurable without it (she's a breast cancer survivor). I now have a more concise list of benefits that may hit closer to home for the people I interact with. My friends and acquaintances are living proof of the premise of the article: namely that there is an epidemic of ignorance about healthcare reform. John Kramer Irvine Lazarus' explanation of Obamacare made it so understandable.