Commentary

Big money rules in Congress. Gun manufacturers can always prevent common-sense legislation like improved background checks, even though more than 90% of all voters and 83% of gun owners favor the measure. Similarly, we pay more for prescription drugs because our government officials — beholden as they are to corporate campaign spenders — will not allow our government to negotiate prices via Medicare and Medicaid. The same makers sell the same drugs in other nations for a small fraction of the price they charge in the U.S.A.

Then-Maryland Transportation Secretary Greg Slater was told in an email how to win approval of the Transportation Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act loan: “Perhaps we can offer them the old bridge for bicycles and save on the cost of demolishment,” Allen Garman, the Maryland Transportation Authority’s director of treasury and debt, said. Likewise, Jim Ports, then the executive director of the authority, voiced concerns about not wanting to waste public funds. Yet the Maryland Transportation Authority plans to spend $15 million to $23 million to destroy the existing Governor Harry W. Nice Memorial/Senator Thomas “Mac” Middleton Bridge, which should be given more consideration for conversion to a pedestrian/bicycle facility that will provide a missing connection at a fraction of the cost for a new structure.

In 2020, there were more than 45,000 gun deaths in the United States — the highest number on record, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. But there was no major push for gun safety legislation. Why? Last year, there were nearly 700 mass shootings in America — the highest number ever recorded by the Gun Violence Archive — and again, there was no major push for gun legislation. Why?

With the rollback of mask mandates and increased demands for a return to “normal,” survivors feel left behind, their grief unseen. Worse yet, many face the outright denial of their loss, especially when they read social media posts that claim the death rates are exaggerated or that the virus is nothing but “a hoax.” Or that age, infirmity or some other disease besides COVID is to blame. Last summer, the U.S. surgeon general issued an advisory regarding the “urgent threat” to public health posed by misinformation about COVID. Despite that, counterclaims and falsehoods have continued relatively unchecked, compounding the grief of families and hindering an already incomplete mourning process.

Recently, I was sitting in the cafe of a large chain grocery store when two employees walked by. One of them must have been training the other one because he said to his colleague, “You saw how crazy things were for Mother’s Day? How we sold out of flowers?” The trainee nodded. “Father’s Day won’t be anything like that,” the veteran said. “It’ll be just another Sunday.” Americans spend on average, $71 more for mothers than they do fathers on their respective holidays. And research from 2021 found that 84% of Americans were planning on feting their mothers, while 75% said the same for fathers.

The Maryland General Assembly’s 2022 legislative session resulted in the enactment of many new health care laws that will impact health care facilities, providers and insurers in the State. Here are some of the highlights from the 2022 session. Value-based care: New value-based care legislation:  (1) amends the Maryland Self-Referral Law to align with federal law permitting health care providers to be paid under certain value-based arrangements; (2)  amends the law governing health care practitioner compensation arrangements with insurers and health maintenance organizations to permit voluntary two-sided incentive arrangements with certain health care practitioners in which the practitioner can assume risk;

On Dec. 30 last year, a fire and explosion at South Baltimore’s CSX Curtis Bay Coal Piers shook homes in the neighboring community and sent a cloud of toxic dust across Curtis Avenue, choking residents unfortunate enough to be outdoors at the time. The massive silo explosion, which shut down operations at the country’s second-largest coal export piers, was heard three miles away in Anne Arundel County. Environmental disasters and toxic air emanating from dirty waterfront industries are nothing new in Curtis Bay. Neither are city and state officials lacking transparency and formal processes in their response.