Leading on affordable health care

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Manhattan: Re John Flanagan’s “A bad Rx for New York” (op-ed, Aug. 2): While most New Yorkers do have some type of health coverage, those with private insurance face rising premiums and costly deductibles, co-pays and out-of-network charges that, in too many cases, make it impossible for them to actually get the care they need.

Nearly half of New Yorkers are already covered by the public Medicare, Medicaid and Children’s Health Insurance programs. Under the New York Health Act, everyone would be covered. No one would face financial barriers when they needed care (including long-term care), and access would no longer be controlled by insurance companies more concerned with their bottom lines than with the health of New Yorkers. Care would be tax-funded and, as the recent report from the RAND Corp. showed, would cost the vast majority of New Yorkers less than they now spend.

As the New York metro research director of Physicians for a National Health Program, I say that it’s time that New York led the way in making access to quality health care available to everyone. Leonard Rodberg,

Queens College professor emeritus of Urban Studies

Hate in vain

Chester, N.J.: Is Donald Trump totally tone deaf or a sociopath? Saying that he wants to tie gun control to immigration reform is tantamount to saying he doesn’t want the El Paso gunman to have died in vain.

David J. Melvin

Definitions

Little Egg Harbor, N.J.: Why aren’t these shooters referred to as domestic terrorists? Terrorist is defined as someone who uses violence against civilians to make political gains. The two men who committed these atrocities seem to fit the bill.

Zoo safety

Ben Gubar

Brooklyn: I love the Bronx Zoo. I go often each year and usually enter through the C Gate. My partner and I are concerned though. After all the mass shootings and skepticism of the shootings in the U.S., it is alarming to me that at the Bronx Zoo, which has so many acres of land and many little nooks and crannies to be hidden in by a perpetrator, doesn’t have bag checks at the C Gate. What if somebody who was deranged or unstable, and had a bag or a stroller folded with a large assault rifle inside, came in easily, sat on a rock and shot at citizens? It would be easy to kill a massive amount of

people and it would take a long time to find the killer. I truly believe the Bronx Zoo should have a scanner or bag check for bag sizes over a certain weight or size. I want my future children, and all children for that matter, to be safe. This is odd to me.

Anthony Cerullo

People kill people

Richmond Hill: To Voicer Atul M. Karnik: Just for the record, we have a national gun law. It’s called the Second Amendment. The other set of laws we live under is the Ten Commandments. If we could see our way to get in line with them, we would be on the way to a nicer world. Please note that the gun manufactures are doing their job. It’s our job to be smarter, wiser and kinder people.

Robert Clolery

GOP hypocrites

Brooklyn: Re mass shootings: Is it too soon to remind everyone that the GOP has always said “root causes” is a fake argument? Example: The GOP always said it doesn’t matter if a child was abused, and that abuse led to a life of crime. “Stop blaming fictional root causes!” Their current argument that video games create mass shootings and teach kids that violence is the answer is even more insane than their usual lies. True or false: The GOP’s beloved police and military literally teach kids daily that you solve problems by shooting your opponent. Uchena Shorey

Gator food

Franklin, N.J.: To Voicer Mike Memphis: I personally am so glad to hear you are not a parent because you seem like a very evil person. This man wasn’t trying to kill his children. To bring up something so disgusting as taking him to Florida and feeding him to the alligators is despicable. This family will never be the same and this father has to live with what he did for the rest of his life. I hope you and your loved ones (if you have any) never have to experience such an awful tragedy. And please for the sake of everyone, don’t reproduce.

Kathy Konecke

Ballot discretion

Middle Village: In “Count every vote,” (editorial, Aug. 5) on the Queens DA recount, you note that some improperly marked ballots were allowed while others were discarded. How was the decision made on how an improper ballot could be marked to be ”good enough”?

Al Trojanowicz voicers@nydailynews.com, (212) 643-7831, Voice of the People, Daily News,

4 New York Plaza, New York, NY 10004.

Detective work

Halifax, Nova Scotia: Re “Creepy correspondence from Theodore Cardinal McCarrick illustrates his ability to groom young victims for sexual abuse, experts say” (Aug. 6): The story did mention some postcards were enclosed with letters to his dad, but the supposedly 32year-old postcard in the photo shows no fading of the ink, and is marked Air Mail, but has no stamp on it. I do believe members of the church did improper things, and I’m not making excuses for this cardinal, but this evidence seems odd.

Scott Baker

No more hate

Manhattan: As a Hispanic retired teacher, I couldn’t agree more with Voicer Susan Caprio. During my tenure, I saw that students gravitated to commitment, genuine care and a hardworking teacher. I am not saying that New York City’s students have not felt the sting of racism. I did as a product of the public school system, as a student and as a teacher. It seems to be everywhere today creating an

GETTY IMAGES anger I have never seen. Yes, the playing field needs to be changed and schools strengthened on the K-12 level. We adults, however, need to stop teaching all kids hate. Doris Vega

Linked out

Long Beach, L.I.: Please get rid of those banners on the Daily News website that link to other news stories. They take up one quarter of my screen space. Please fire the idiot who came up with this idea. This person doesn’t belong in tech. He should, instead, be sweeping a warehouse with no air conditioning somewhere.

Robert Sanchez

Toni Morrison

Hallandale Beach, Fla.: Toni Morrison was a national treasure. Her writing was not just beautiful but meaningful — a challenge to our conscience and a call to greater empathy. She was as good as a storyteller, as captivating in person as she was on the page. We will remember Toni Morrison as a great author and Nobel laureate always and forever. Toni Morrison, RIP. Paul Bacon DAILY NEWS NYDailyNews.com