Letters: Next Alameda County DA must embrace Care First

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Next DA must embraceCare First proposal

Re: “Several apply to take over for Price” (Page B1, Jan. 8).

The Alameda County Board of Supervisors will soon be appointing an interim District Attorney. As an Alameda County resident, civil rights and criminal defense attorney, and survivor of violent crime, I urge the board to choose someone who champions the county’s Care First, Jails Last resolution.

Passed unanimously in 2021, Care First is a commitment to divert mentally ill people and those struggling with addiction from jail so that they can receive better and more cost-effective care in the community. The DA will play a critical role in implementation.

Commitment to Care First is a commitment to public safety, and it should therefore be a non-negotiable qualification for our next DA.

Natasha BakerOakland

AI health care bandoesn’t go far enough

Re: “AI out of health care denials” (Page A1, Jan. 5).

I applaud the passage of Senate Bill 1120 which will prohibit a health insurance company from denying coverage to a person based solely on artificial intelligence algorithms.

This bill was co-sponsored by the California Medical Association to underscore the importance of protecting the doctor-patient relationship. However, this measure does not go far enough to ensure that all Californians receive affordable, quality health care coverage. The continued use in this country of private insurance companies who impose their judgment into the doctor-patient relationship and raise the cost of health care solely for their profit must cease.

As the AI article highlighted, about a quarter of all health insurance claims were denied last year. Single-payer, Medicare for All coverage is the only way to truly confront the injustices of these for-profit, corporate health insurers.

Jonee GrassiLafayette

Trump is long ontariffs, short on policy

Donald Trump thinks he can cure some American economic issues by raising tariffs on things we import from China and elsewhere. But pretty much all economists agree that just raising tariffs without a comprehensive policy framework will increase prices Americans must pay and thus increase inflation. A recession most likely will follow.

Tariffs can be a tool in our policy toolbox to make the United States better off. However, tariffs do not stand alone: They are a small part of a country’s economic strategy.

Mike McKeeverSan Leandro

Protest reflects moodof many U.S. Jews

Re: “Health care workers hold ‘pop up clinic’ at Stanford to protest war” (Page B2, Jan. 7).

Thank you for the article on the health care workers’ protest at Stanford University against the United States providing weapons and funding for Israel’s 15-month genocide in Gaza.

The health care workers bravely called out Israel’s deliberate bombing of hospitals and ambulances, and the killing of health care workers, children and even babies — using Americans’ tax dollars. As a member of Jewish Voice for Peace, I have felt sick with despair as the killing goes on, and the supporters of genocide claim it is in the name of all Jews.

The truth, as one of the speakers, Hilton Obenzinger, said, is that hundreds of thousands of American Jews are crying out for a permanent cease-fire and U.S. arms embargo.

Judy MacLeanBerkeley

How can Americansbe OK with funding war?

Re: “Health care workers hold ‘pop up clinic’ at Stanford to protest war” (Page B2, Jan. 7).

What kind of people have we Americans become that we are now sending an additional $8 billion in weapons to a country so it can bomb even more of the now pile of rubble that is Palestine? So that lack of food, shelter and water causes newborn babies to freeze to death and children to starve to death? To support an army that targets journalists, health care workers, teachers and first responders including Americans; that strips doctors naked in front of their patients then tortures and kills these humanitarians? Who cuts off aid to the one humanitarian group that effectively provides food, shelter and water to dying innocents?

And all because Israel claims, always reported as “without evidence,” that these babies, children, patients hooked up to IVs in hospitals, journalists, even chefs, are terrorists and merit being tortured and killed. How can America fund such atrocities?

Elizabeth FisherPleasant Hill

Peaceful certificationstark contrast to 2021

Re: “Congress peacefully certifies presidential victory by Trump in stark contrast to 2021” (Page A1, Jan. 7).

What a shame it is to the citizens of the United States that this is a front-page story.

History will note the blot on our reputation brought by the former loser of the 2020 election and current president-elect.

Patricia CoffeyOrinda