The Price of Publicity
Your story about Pepco's price hikes ["Higher Power Bills a Surprise to Many; Pepco Unleashes Publicity Campaign," District Extra, Jan. 20] buried the most bizarre bit of news: a $2.9 million campaign just to tell people about the increases.
Why not just give that money back to them [to reduce] the amount of the increases?
Department of Health Director Dr. Gregg Pane.
(Lauren Victoria Burke For The Washington Post)
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The story was vague about who exactly is paying for the campaign. Is it Pepco or the city? And we would not have the whole problem of people being unaware of increases if The Post played the story on the front page, where it belongs.
Vincent Morris
Capitol Hill
Everyone's Emergency
The article by Susan Levine ["Finding the Right Diagnosis on D.C. Health," District Extra, Jan. 13] cites 10 critically important health care indicators in which the residents of the city fall behind national averages: AIDS, asthma, children's immunization, diabetes, health insurance, infant mortality, obesity and overweight, sexually transmitted diseases, substance abuse, and teen pregnancy and birthrate.
Enough is enough.
Repeated efforts over the years have done little to improve these statistics, and no one can deny that we are capable of doing far, far more. A comprehensive approach to addressing these problems should be undertaken immediately by everyone in this community under the leadership of the mayor and the D.C. Council.
The director of the Department of Health, Gregg A. Pane, is quoted as saying, "We have to create a sense of urgency." The District of Columbia Hospital Association could not agree more.
Robert A. Malson
President, District of Columbia
Hospital Association
Focus on Kids' Health
Congratulations to Department of Health Director Gregg A. Pane for taking an honest look at health conditions in the District. Showing how the District fares when stacked up to other cities calls for a closer look at the health status of teens. Far too many District youngsters lack consistent health care as shown by the alarming asthma, obesity, pregnancy, substance abuse and sexually transmitted infection rates.
A good place to start making the District healthier is by beefing up school-based clinics and school health. Making sure all adolescents get comprehensive health education, counseling, preventive screening and treatment will go a long way.
Let's follow the lead of other communities by spending money on the front end to protect the health of all young people.
Brenda Rhodes Miller
Executive Director, D.C.
Campaign to Prevent
Teen Pregnancy
