March 9 Letters to the Editor
As a Princeton resident, I was shocked to learn of Princeton University's non-renewal of the contract of the brilliant and learned Near Eastern scholar Dr. Michael Barry, after 12 years of University teaching and just two years from retirement. Michael Barry is a world-renowned scholar whose lectures at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and at Princeton are among the most absorbing I have ever attended. Anyone who doubts the richness of his background and the extent of his contributions should read his biography on the Princeton University website or watch one of his lectures available on YouTube. The decision by this immensely wealthy university not to renew the contract of such an illustrious lecturer after so many years is incredibly shabby. To their credit, University students and alumni are protesting the decision, which certainly does not reflect an attitude of age-friendliness at Princeton University.
Francesca Benson
Princeton
Is Horizon's OMNIA tiered insurance plan the new redlining? Considering the way Horizon left several regions of the state--communities that are primarily poor and of color--without access to affordable healthcare under the plan, it certainly feels that way.
OMNIA leaves large gaps in access to affordable health care in some of the poorest and most vulnerable cities in the state. The company's deliberate and completely underserving exclusion of both St. Francis Medical Center and Capital Health in Trenton leaves the Capital City and its residents without a Tier 1 facility. This means that Trenton residents now have to pay more for the same services if they choose to stay at their community hospital and with the doctors and nurses they've come to know and trust. And with many Trenton residents relying on public transportation to get around, they now face higher travel costs should they go to a Tier 1 facility for care. With OMNIA, people in my community are paying more either way. Sounds awfully similar to redlining to me.
Many of the hospitals left out of Horizon's Tier 1 are critical safety-net hospitals that provide excellent care regardless of ability to pay. They are also important economic anchors that provide essential services and good paying jobs. In the case of Trenton, the two hospitals sidelined by OMNIA are the largest non-governmental employers in the Capital City. Horizon's abandonment of these excellent facilities, the people they serve, and the professionals that work at them is nothing short of deplorable.
Horizon's OMNIA plan does nothing more than perpetuate the endless cycle of institutional discrimination. It must be stopped now.
Friendship Baptist Church Pastor John R. Taylor
Trenton
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