The nation’s health care system must be fixed

My niece, a police officer in Florida, took her infant son to a Georgia hospital during an emergency. The baby, who had a cold, was having difficulty breathing and his mom panicked. The nurses and doctor were able to handle the crisis with no difficulty. But it was a very scary night for the baby’s mother who was visiting family over Thanksgiving.

The out-of-network bill arrived shortly before Christmas. Rather, three bills arrived. One for $336. One for $1,539. One for $1,898. That’s $3,773 for a brief (but thank God successful) ER visit.

Whether you have insurance or not, please write to your elected officials and demand our insane health care system, the most expensive and illogical in the world, be fixed.

Elisabeth Sherwin, Allenspark


Student name and gender changes

The news that the Estes Park School Board voted unanimously to uphold the bill signed into law by Governor Polis requiring teachers to call students by their personally chosen name (in addition to gender) made me wonder about a few scenarios.

If, say, half of a class decides on a new name (for fun!), will teachers have to memorize two names for each of their students? If a student chooses a name like “Satanspawn” or “Uranus,” will the teacher still be required to use that name?

If parents (who are clearly not the boss of their children, according to Democrats) call the school asking for their child using the name they gave that child, will the school’s secretary be confused and have to alternate between names when calling the child and speaking to the parent?

I’m so relieved that my daughters like their names, are out of school, and that I’m not a teacher. This state gets wackier by the day.

Sibyl Gardner, Glen Haven