Letters to the Editor

Readers write: Letters to the editor, January 10, 2017

 

Love the living: Don’t drink and drive

As parents of an adult daughter killed by a drunken driver, we feel we have an obligation to do what we can to stir public awareness on this critical issue of driving under the influence. The aftermath of a careless moment that can echo throughout decades for those of us who are left to pick up the pieces of shattered lives and families. Yes, there are penalties for those who have behaved badly, but after the penalties have been satisfied there are still fragmented lives left in the wake. Children who grow up without a mother, husbands who start over in life without a partner, parents and siblings who have had their futures altered and shattered. The offender never knows what they have done or the ripple effect on families. They just know how their own life and their family was altered by their penalty. What a scar on their being.

We read the news reports that reflect a trend of rising rates of DUIs in 2016. People can feel our loss and pain from 22 years after we lost Gayle Ann Berube.
If you are going to choose to drive drunk, put yourself in our devastation while turning that key. How would you handle the loss?

Call a friend, call a cab, do the responsible thing. Don't DRINK and DRIVE ever!

Love the living.

— Walter and Mary Sherwood
Anchorage

Hospital cost reports not the full picture

I have been following Charles Wohlforth's series on health care in Alaska with great interest. I appreciate Mr. Wohlforth bringing the complexity, magnitude and impact of this crisis to the attention of Alaskans. In a recent column, Mr. Wolhlforth described the role hospitals play in the rising cost of health care, and highlighted Providence Alaska Medical Center as our state's largest hospital. Mr. Wohlforth quoted cost report data and highlighted Providence's bad debt and charity care contributions to Alaskans. While cost reports are an effective tool for rate setting, it does not capture the full spectrum of a hospital's positive financial contributions to the community and state. For example, it is my understanding that in 2015, Providence provided over $41 million in charity care, which is a part of the overall $70 million in community benefits. My organization, the South Central Alaska Area Health Education Center, is one of many beneficiaries of Providence's vast work in this area, and without their support, we could not provide the training and workforce development necessary to ensure health care reaches the rural and underserved populations across our state. Providence's focus on serving the poor and vulnerable extends far beyond the walls of their hospital buildings and directly impacts access to health care for Alaskans.

Many of us in the industry are, indeed, working hard every day to ensure Alaskans get access to the high-quality health care and working to reduce the unsustainable cost of this care. I look forward to Mr. Wolhlforth's future columns on this topic.

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— Mari Selle, director
South Central Alaska AHEC
Anchorage

When did we vote to repeal Obamacare?

Vice President-elect Mike Pence said today "the American people voted decisively to repeal 'Obamacare.' " I know it is cold and dark here in Alaska and maybe I was hibernating, but I do not remember the American people voting "decisively" for anything or anyone. Does Pence have memory issues?

— Nicholas Cassara
Palmer

We all deserve a shot at a healthy life

My children deserve to live the healthiest life possible. My patients, my neighbors, my co-workers and people I don't even know … we all deserve a chance to live the healthiest life possible.

One piece of living a healthy life is through affordable health care. The Affordable Care Act has given health care coverage to millions. It protected my friend from financial devastation when her child underwent care for a severe congenital heart condition. And it's helped bring my patients health care and preventive screenings that they would otherwise have gone without.

I have been a registered nurse for nearly 20 years. I have worked in many health settings caring for those with cancer, mental illness, the elderly, the young and the poor. I have worked to try to find care for a low-income working man who had no insurance and no options to address his symptoms. I have held the hands of the dying when their cancer could have been treated if caught early through preventive screenings. I have seen patients forced to go without care because they couldn't afford the care they needed, time and time again.

While the Affordable Care Act isn't perfect, it does represent a vision — a vision of a country where health is a shared value, a right that we all have, that we all participate in, and that we all fight to keep.

As a nurse, I will fight for this right for my patients. For the poor, the sick and the injured. I will also fight for the healthy — so they may stay healthy.

And so, I am calling on Congress to protect the right to affordable health care for all of us, not just some of us. For my patients, for my children, for my friends and neighbors. Please don't repeal the ACA. Work to make it better, so that we all may share health as a value and a reality.

— Sarah Hargrave, MS, RN
board of directors, Alaska Nurses Association
Juneau

Can’t draw conclusions without research

Recent articles in the ADN about the Esteban Santiago killings in Fort Lauderdale might suggest that banning "the mentally ill" from gun ownership would be a major step in preventing shootings, but do we really know if "mentally ill" people are more likely to shoot anybody? We don't know, because research into the complex problem of gun violence is forbidden in our country. Are there legislative or other solutions to the problem that might be effective? We don't know because research into the problem of gun violence is forbidden in our country.

— Royal Kiehl, MD
Anchorage

Let’s lay out the Law of the Land

Let it be the Law of the Land that no member of the Senate should be allowed to vote to confirm a Cabinet nominee or other candidate whose money contributed to that senator's campaign.

— Gregory Fries
Homer

The views expressed here are the writers' own and are not necessarily endorsed by Alaska Dispatch News, which welcomes a broad range of viewpoints. To submit a letter under 200 words for consideration, email letters@alaskadispatch.com, or click here to submit via any web browser. Submitting a letter to the editor constitutes granting permission for it to be edited for clarity, accuracy and brevity. Send longer works of opinion to commentary@alaskadispatch.com.

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