Health Care

Surgery on older people can be riskier than other generations. But it can be safely done if doctors take certain precautions. Dr. Mark Katlic, chief of surgery at Sinai Hospital of Baltimore and an expert on surgical care of patients 80 and older, talks about the risks involved. Is a patient ever too old for surgery? There is no age in years that makes a patient ineligible for needed surgery. Early in the last century, many surgeons held the view that age 50 was old! Now we are doing complex operations, even heart surgery, in patients in their 80s, 90s and into their 100s.

Two decades ago, a long-term patient at Greater Baltimore Medical Center was astonished at the quality of care he was getting. His principal nurse wasn't just cheerful and knowledgeable. She also seemed to be taking care of him day and night. Then he realized his caregiver was not one person, but two: Tina Maggio and Gina Ranieri, identical twins who were taking their shifts back-to-back, just as they've shared nearly everything important in their lives. "He thought we were some kind of super-nurse," Tina said in the pair's office at Gilchrist Center, the acute-care hospice they've served for 16 years.

The problems cited by the article "VA falls short on helping veterans" (Jan. 27) regarding the Veterans Affairs Department's huge delays in processing disability payments raises another question regarding how well it administers its responsibility for providing health care to our veterans in general. Why is there a need for the "Wounded Warriors" organization that constantly solicits donations from the public? Isn't this the clearest indication of the VA's failures and an extreme embarrassment to this administration?

Robert Yentzer has made a common but fundamental error in his commentary, "The deficit control policy Democrats and Republicans can both love" (Jan. 29). Regarding Social Security, seniors must spend a considerably larger proportion of their income on health care than the general population. And health care costs are rising much faster than the general cost of living. Any policy that cuts the very meager Social Security distribution to seniors, such as the "chained CPI," would be a devastating blow to seniors' quality of life.

Former Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. has outdone himself ("What if? Life under President Romney," Jan. 27). With his predictions of what would have transpired under President Mitt Romney, he has produced his funniest column yet. However, he seems to have omitted a few things that would have happened under the bumbling Mr. Romney. To begin with, Mr. Ehrlich failed to mention Mr. Romney's plan to turn health care planning over to Prevention Magazine which, while resulting in an increase in subscriptions, did not lower the cost of health care.

In a story that includes the phrase "he asks between squirts of deer antler," Sports Illustrated brings the fascinating story of two men aggressively marketing a line of health care supplements -- hologram stickers, the aforementioned deer antler spray, powders, underwear drenched in liquid (seriously) -- to college and pro athletes. The company's name explains the concept: S.W.A.T.S., which stands for Sports with Alternatives to Steroids. At the center of the story is none other than Ravens linebacker Ray Lewis, who is in New Orleans preparing to play the final game of his NFL career on Sunday.

Conventional wisdom indicates that a host of mental health issues will be up for discussion during the General Assembly's 2013 legislative session. This is welcome news for the one in five Marylanders living with mental illness who are struggling to access the services they need. The current attention to mental health speaks to the longstanding inadequacy of the community mental health safety net in this country. More than 60 years have passed since we opened the wards of inhumane psychiatric hospitals for public inspection nationwide, as depicted with heart-wrenching clarity in the 1949 Baltimore Sun expose "Maryland's Shame.

You wouldn't know it from our nation's debate over Obamacare, but the U.S. has had government-supported health care for nearly 80 years. Not only that, but our nation bolsters a retirement level well beyond the thin safety net provided by Social Security, and it even ensures Americans a path to a family-supporting wage. And, no, I have not mistaken the U.S. for a socialist European nation. Our government assures us these broad economic benefits by guaranteeing our right to form a labor union.

Forty years ago this month, the U.S. Supreme Court legalized abortion in every state in its historic Roe v. Wade decision. It affirmed that the constitutionally protected right to privacy includes every woman's ability to make her own personal medical decisions without the interference of politicians. Four decades later, a majority of Americans still agree with the high court that personal health care decisions should be left up to a woman. In poll after poll, the majority of Americans support access to safe and legal abortion in some or most cases.

News flash: President Romney and congressional leaders met today to review the terms of the recently concluded fiscal cliff deal wherein the Bush tax cuts were extended by four years, the corporate income tax rate was reduced from 35 percent to 25 percent, and the capital gains tax rate for middle class taxpayers was lowered to 10 percent. The leaders returned to Washington to encouraging news from Wall Street, where the Dow Jones Industrial Average is up 800 points since the fiscal deal was announced.