‘Clemente’s Number 21 May Be Retired From Play’

The first number that baseball should have permanently retired, and perhaps the only number it should have retired, is really obvious [Sports, “Clemente’s Number 21 May Be Retired From Play,” January 22, 2008].

He saved the sport singlehandedly after the Black Sox scandal of 1919 and stunned the world as no player ever had with his awesome power. Ladies and Gentlemen — the Bambino, the Sultan of Swat — no. 3 Babe Ruth.

EVAN EDWARDS
New York, N.Y.

‘The Health Care Rub’

In just five words, Diana Furchtgott-Roth cut to the heart of the Medicare physician payment problem when she stated in her op-ed that “cutting reimbursements affects patient service” [Oped, “The Health Care Rub,” January 16, 2008].

An American Medical Association survey found that if this year’s 10% Medicare physician payment cut occurs in June as planned, 60% of physicians will be forced to limit the number of new Medicare patients they could treat.

It is imperative that Congress tackle this problem head-on in the next few months by passing legislation that raises payments in line with medical practice costs for 18 months. This will give legislators time to begin creating a new payment system for physicians that will ensure that seniors don’t have to worry about whether a physician can care for them. In just three short years, the baby boomers begin aging into Medicare.

With a projected physician shortage and plunging Medicare payment rates, this huge influx of new Medicare patients will have a hard time finding physicians to care for them unless Congress takes action now to fix the problem.

RONALD DAVIS
President
American Medical Association
Chicago, Ill.

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