Letters: Insurance solutions | Avoiding falls | Climate funding | Court’s corruption | An affront to U.S. - The Mercury News
Letters: Insurance solutions | Avoiding falls | Climate funding
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Insurance solutions
must benefit everyone
“We’re in a crisis. Whatever we put in place has to work. Everyone has to be part of the solution,” state Sen. Susan Rubio, chair of the California Senate Insurance Committee, told the Los Angeles Times.
Homeowners’ policy impasse issues involving stakeholders with unique demands have been ongoing for years. We are long overdue to have independent, knowledgeable, results-oriented mediators help reasonably resolve significant complications.
Further, insurance companies should cover fire, smoke and water-related damages that are not related to a wildfire under a standard homeowners policy. “Like a good neighbor, be there.” Wildfire loss coverage would be through the California FAIR Plan.
Many thousands of California policyholders, agents and others are understandably very stressed by policy nonrenewals. There should be positive solutions for everyone; be fair, be kind.
David Lane
Los Gatos
Bill could help
seniors avoid falls
Every day, thousands of older Americans fall. These falls often lead to prolonged pain, broken bones, hospitalizations and even death. They also increase health care costs, with estimated annual costs totaling $100 billion by 2030. Fortunately, falls are preventable.
The Stopping Addiction and Falls for the Elderly (SAFE) Act ( H.R. 7618), a new bill in Congress, would streamline access to physical therapy and help keep seniors on their feet.
This bill would ensure more seniors receive a fall risk assessment from a falls expert to prevent accidents, injuries and hospitalizations by including no-cost fall risk assessments from physical or occupational therapists in Medicare beneficiaries’ wellness benefit.
The SAFE Act would enable older Californians to live safer, more independent lives.
Fabrice Rockich
San Jose
San Jose must not
sacrifice climate funding
Re: “ Higher temperatures on the way in Bay Area cities” (June 9).
A high school resident of San Jose, I’ve personally experienced these higher temperatures directly impacting our lives. I’ve had school canceled, been unable to step outside as wildfires blazed right outside my house — all due to climate change.
Unfortunately, the City Council’s proposed 2024-25 budget will cut Climate Smart San Jose’s funding, impairing the city’s progress toward its goal of carbon neutrality, or net-zero greenhouse gas emissions, by 2030. As a large city and climate leader, San Jose should be prioritizing environmental protection and a reduction of our city’s fossil fuels. It’s more important than ever. Even further, we should instate long-term, stable funding for Climate Smart to maintain and expand the program’s significant efforts toward sustainability.
I beseech the council to prioritize climate change financially and in all future decisions to foster a sustainable world for youth like me.
Simran Karkhanis
San Jose
Court’s corruption has
been a long time coming
Re: “ Supreme Court justices Alito and Roberts discuss politically sensitive topics in secret recordings by liberal activist” (June 11).
Mitch McConnell destroyed the credibility of the U.S. Supreme Court in 2016 when he failed to give Merrick Garland a hearing, based on a rule he made up for the occasion. If there was a drop of credibility left he sealed the deal in 2020 by turning the fake rule on its head and confirming Amy Coney Barrett. Maybe she’s qualified, but her confirmation was corrupted.
Brett Kavanaugh is a known liar. Clarence Thomas sells himself to the highest bidders. Samuel Alito supports thugs who tried to overturn the government and wants to bring us all to our knees to worship his chosen deities.
Chief Justice Roberts, apparently without comment, presides over an illegitimate, visibly corrupt court and ultimately over the death of American democracy.
Judith Hurley
San Jose
Alito’s inverted flag
is an affront to U.S.
Re: “ I fly my flags to help inspire and unite — not to divide” (Page A9, June 9).
Sorry, Joe Mathews, I can’t share your sympathy for Justice Alito after his public display of an inverted American flag on his home porch. Keep in mind, a country’s flag serves as a revered representative icon of its owner nation. By hanging their flag upright outside your home, you are making a positive statement about your relationship with that nation: solidarity, support, affinity.
However, flying any country’s flag in an inverted position is considered an insult to that nation, its citizens and government. Justice Alito’s inverted flag action can only be understood as a deliberate affront to all Americans, our institutions, our laws, our integrity and the reverence accorded our flag. In any case, his action was both inexcusable and incomprehensible behavior for a Supreme Court justice. He deserves our severe criticism. He owes us his sincere apology.
Marialis Seehorn
Sunnyvale
Related Knowledge Center: Climate economics
Climate change is now a driver of the world’s economy. The impact is profound:
- Catastrophic weather events — hurricanes, floods, droughts, high temperatures — are more frequent and more extreme. The cost can be measured in both the initial damage caused and the longer-term impact on the economy.
- Vulnerable communities are increasing climate-related investments, hardening infrastructure and taking other protective measures.
- Investment in carbon capture and storage technologies is increasingly rapidly.
- Governments are making investments and crafting regulations to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases.
On top of all of this is the cost of uncertainty. As the Fourth National Climate Assessment, released in 2018 by the U.S. Global Change Research Program, says, “The assumption that current and future climate conditions will resemble the recent past is no longer valid.”