Great insight into Army-Navy football rivalry

Kudos to Mike Klingaman for his excellent article, “Army-Navy football: Rivals played a game fraught with blunders in Baltimore 100 years ago” (Dec. 13). Although I am not a Army-Navy football fan, I felt the article was so descriptive, warm and fascinating!

I could almost feel the cold and the enthusiasm of the crowd of 80,000 at Municipal Stadium and the entire city of Baltimore in 1924 as Mike so aptly wrote about it. When Mike gave the “update” of the game’s hero, West Point kicker Edgar Garbisch, I thought the touching story was complete.

This was great writing! By the way, who won?

— Sharan Kushner, Baltimore

How Congress can help make health care affordable

In her recent commentary, “How Congress can stop hospitals from overcharging patients” (Dec. 11), Dr. Lisa Abrams clearly lays out the astonishing facts — which most of us don’t realize — around high hospital costs due to the proliferation of hospital-bought, previously independent doctor offices.

Under the hospital’s umbrella, these outpatient settings cause the cost to patients to increase at least 14%, often more. In addition, distant offices make for longer wait time and less access to care, especially for seniors (I’m one) and patients in rural areas. The Congressional Budget Office states that Medicare often pays three times more for some outpatient services.

Dr. Abrams says physicians like herself are increasingly frustrated by not only hampered ability to provide quality care but also by the cost to patients. Congress can and should fix this untenable situation. The Medicare Payment Advisory Commission figures the savings to commercial insurance plans would be $140 billion with Medicare costs cut $150 billion over ten years or $15 billion per year. The incoming Donald Trump administration obviously will relish these savings.

Congress must resist the hospital lobby and pass site-neutral payment reform as soon as possible. Legislators, give patients a much-needed break! You’ll be making health care more affordable for patients, insurers and Medicare as well.

— Bruce Knauff, Towson

Baltimore must get smarter about making roads safer

Roads don’t cause crashes, drivers do. That’s why enhanced enforcement on Belair Road is welcome news that can lead to better driving and less hazards everywhere (“Baltimore’s Belair Road to get more safety improvements after spate of fatal crashes,” Dec. 16).

But lane reduction with waves of flexible posts are simply mindless, whack-a-mole options that displace speeding and hazardous drivers elsewhere. Lane reductions make fundamental (and growing) commercial transit next to impossible. Where do displaced trucks go? Trucks in many areas now travel residential streets that truly can’t accommodate the displaced traffic and are hazardous themselves.

Why does the city’s next 10-year city plan have an entire section dedicated to commercial truck traffic issues? Answer: because of conflicts posed by the “first generation” Complete Streets effort.

Nonsensical options suggested as solutions are not backed by applicable data or recent experience. This is what happens when legislators or mayors step in for limited professional staff. We need to broadly revisit how streets and drivers are improved in this city.

— Dolph Druckman, Baltimore

Trimming health care costs? Start with insurance CEO pay

The recent commentary about the ways U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary nominee Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services administrator nominee Dr. Mehmet Oz can cut Medicare expenditures raised the possibility of cutting fees to physicians (“How RFK Jr. and Dr. Oz can cut Medicare waste,” Dec. 15).

As David Williams of the Taxpayers Protection Alliance so rightly points out, physician payments for Medicare patients, never high to begin with, have consistently been cut and will continue to be. This will cause many providers to refuse to take Medicare patients and will result in even less high-quality, accessible care for our elderly and disabled citizens who are already experiencing restrictions in choice of providers.

Curiously there was no mention made of the outrageous salaries and bonuses paid to the CEOs of private insurance and managed care companies, a circumstance outlined in the aftermath of the recent murder of the UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson. I suggest that if these gentlemen want to eliminate waste and abuse of Medicare and other insurance companies, they may want to start there.

— Katy L. Benjamin, MSW, SM, Ph.D., Baltimore