Support our non-partisan non-profit newsroom 💜 Donate now

Letters: College sports and health care

Marketplace Staff Mar 2, 2010
HTML EMBED:
COPY

Letters: College sports and health care

Marketplace Staff Mar 2, 2010
HTML EMBED:
COPY

TEXT OF STORY

Tess Vigeland: We tip off letters today with basketball, or at least a look behind the locker room wall. Two weeks ago we interviewed sportswriter Mark Yost about corruption in college sports. The conversation revolved around the sometimes less-than-ideal outcomes for those who don’t go pro.

Jenn O’Reilly of San Francisco is a six time NCAA All-American in track. And she was outraged at what Mr.Yost left out.

JENN O’Reilly: I was appalled at the one-sexed, micro-focused analysis of college sports. The NCAA sponsors 23 sports for men and women across three divisions. Mr. Yost should be more precise when damning college sports as not being focused on the athletes. That is just not the case for the majority of us.

Karen Hamilton of Escondido, Calif., was miffed as well.

KAREN HAMILTON: This piece never mentions the stark contrast in graduation rates when comparing women’s and men’s teams. Please don’t refer to college athletics if you mean men’s college athletics.

So we put in another call to Mr. Yost. He says there’s a reason women don’t come up in discussions about corruption in college sports.

MARK YOST: They’re not corrupted. It’s the money of the men’s sports that really leads people astray.

While we’re on the topic of money and competition, last week we covered that big health care summit in Washington. And a couple of lines from our reporter got your dander up…

NANCY MARSHALL Genzer: Many Americans don’t have a good sense of those costs. Most of us get our insurance through our employers. The premiums are deducted automatically from our paychecks. We’re disconnected from the cost of health care.

Actually, many of you said, I know exactly what I spend on health care. And it’s a lot! Others of you admitted she’s right and you have no idea.

Whatever the cost, Chris Merrill of Raleigh, N.C., says he’s thinking less about dollar signs and more about solutions to the problem. He says the fix to health care is all about competition, and he points to LASIK eye surgery as proof.

CHRIS Merrill: It is not covered by most health care, people have to spend their own money for it. When faced with this, they shop around and look for the best deal. Apply this to the rest of health care and you have the solution.

And finally, a note about a commentary we ran last week from Youth Radio’s Lauren Silverman. She described how the financial crisis made her rethink her dream of working on Wall Street.

Ben Gustafson of Framingham, Mass., has a word of advice…

BEN GUSTAFSON: There are plenty of career choices in industries and companies that actually add value to people’s lives. Think big!

We want your thoughts, big and small.

There’s a lot happening in the world.  Through it all, Marketplace is here for you. 

You rely on Marketplace to break down the world’s events and tell you how it affects you in a fact-based, approachable way. We rely on your financial support to keep making that possible. 

Your donation today powers the independent journalism that you rely on. For just $5/month, you can help sustain Marketplace so we can keep reporting on the things that matter to you.