Norristown

America needs

socialized medicine

Wouldn't socialized medicine be better than the health-care system we have, which costs much more than in other countries and still does not do the job?

Eliminating the horrific extra cost of privatized health care would be like generating the automatic savings equal to a tax cut of 5 percent for an average income. It would work better to provide care, too, if data from the World Health Organization is to be believed.

And then, we would no longer need to regulate all the medical interest groups, or pay for their advertising, and lobbies, and kickbacks, too.

Martin Klaver

Lumberton

Nothing's 'free'

for federal workers

Re: "Federal workers' benefits too costly," letter, June 19:

After working more than 37 years for the federal government, I recently retired. Unfortunately, the public is misinformed about our benefits. Yes, the House passed a bill giving federal employees "paid" leave to care for a newly born, adopted, or foster child. But what the public fails to realize is that this paid leave is the employee's own earned annual leave (vacation time) and/or sick leave.

We earn this leave based upon the hours we work. Nothing is given to us free. If someone has no accrued leave, then the leave granted will be without pay. People should get their facts straight before criticizing federal employees. As a whole, we are hardworking, and underpaid, doing what we feel is a service to this great country.

Marianne R. Crocetto

Mount Laurel

Tanning requires

more regulation

The Pennsylvania Medical Society strongly supports the Indoor Tanning Regulation Act introduced by State Sen. Pat Browne. While we would prefer that people simply not engage in recreational tanning, we believe the enactment of Senate Bill 460 will minimize the damage caused to the health of our citizens who use tanning facilities.

Tanning dangers include eye damage, skin cancer, and premature aging of the skin.