Where's the fairness in sex-assault cases? | Readers respond

Bill Cosby is not incarcerated because a jury of 12 presumably honest citizens, after a fair and open trial as guaranteed by our Constitution, could not agree on his guilt or nonguilt — innocence was not the issue — after a lengthy trial.
The commentary, "False narratives prevail in cases of sexual assault" (Wednesday) used this trial to rail against treatment of women in sexual abuse trials.

It is possible every accusation made against the treatment of women is absolutely correct, but in this trial with this accuser, a jury thought otherwise.

The state is preparing to waste additional hundreds of thousands of dollars it could put to better use to retry Cosby, and for what purpose? This letter is not an excuse for sexual assault, which is abhorrent, but fairness is a two-way street. Men are frequently accused when a so-called victim has, for lack of a better phrase, buyer's remorse.

— Ralph D. Bloch, Rydal, ralphdbloch@yahoo.com

I read with concern George Will's column on the rising cost of Medicaid as a percentage of the country's gross domestic product ("Toomey's Medicaid reform," Thursday). He pointed out that costs are rising because Medicaid covers far more people than it did initially, including the delivery of more than half the babies born in the United States, seniors in nursing homes, and disabled people.

I agree that those are most likely the reasons Medicaid spending has risen relative to GDP, but some other part of the GDP would need to cover those costs if Medicaid did not. Hospitals would be forced to cover the cost of the delivery of those babies, propped up by local taxpayers' dollars. Medicaid coverage of more people is shifting costs, not creating costs.

Will incorrectly blamed Medicaid for paying a huge amount for nursing-home care. But the situation is a result of people getting old and feeble and needing such care and by the expensive needs of people with chronic or long-term illnesses (he called them "platinum patients," but they are just very sick).

Limiting Medicaid's financial contribution to the care of such expensive patients will not help.

— Gretchen Cowell, Philadelphia, philacowell1@yahoo.com

Hallelujah — our esteemed Senate leader, Republican Mitch McConnell, is considering working with Democrats to stabilize the Obamacare insurance markets if he can't get GOP senators to agree on a replacement for the Affordable Care Act ("Senate health bid in a struggle," Friday).

As a lifelong professional insurance executive, I am convinced that program revision would just delay the obvious eventual passage of a single-payer health-care system, as is already provided in most of the other Western democracies.

This would be one important way for President Trump to "Make America Great Again." I'm hoping he recognizes this may be his only opportunity to one-up Mitch and take the lead with "Health Care for All," as we already provide for seniors.

Our Medicare plan has been successful for 50 years — a proven health-care program that should be expanded to include all of our citizens. If not, why not?

— Bill Reynolds, Audubon, Montgomery County

Red-light cameras and subsequent fines are not the issue — traffic safety is ("'Speed cameras could be coming,'" Monday).
A camera program should not be used as a "gotcha" to catch motorists in the act of running a red light, but a tool to change drivers' behavior — to slow them down or stop them from running red lights — to prevent crashes.

According to the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety's 2016 Traffic Safety Culture Index, most drivers (92.8 percent) consider it unacceptable to drive through a red light when the driver could have stopped safely. Nonetheless, 35.6 percent admit to having driven through a light that had just turned red in the past 30 days. In addition, a majority of motorists support using cameras to automatically ticket drivers who run red lights in urban and residential areas.

Philadelphia's red-light camera program is working. Data show that citations are down and serious crashes are on the decline at most intersections where cameras have been installed.

AAA believes the program is being operated in Philadelphia with the necessary motorist protections to ensure a fair process. Given the abuses we have seen in other states and cities, we take nothing for granted. AAA encourages drivers to obey traffic laws, and we will advocate for our members when we see blatant abuses of authority.

— Jana Tidwell, manager, public and government affairs, AAA Mid-Atlantic, Philadelphia