Suffolk speed limits and hearing aids for seniors

Suffolk speed limits mean little to many

Monday’s cover story merely underscores the jungle that has become Suffolk County roads ["Suffolk led NY in 2020 roadway fatalities," News, Sept. 27]:

1) The Long Island Expressway has become the Indianapolis Speedway. Try doing just the speed limit in the far right lane.

2) Some off-roads have a 40-miles-per-hour speed limit, which is laughable.

3) On side roads where the limit is 30 mph, well, the limit seemingly is not 30 mph.

4) In all of the above, one must pull over to avoid being tailgated.

5) Too many drivers change lanes without signaling.

Impatient drivers honk their horns, display a finger or just tailgate. It matters little that defensive drivers seek to lessen the chaos. There’s no reward for good driver behavior and no penalty for indifferent drivers.

— John P. Schmidt, Ridge

Hearing aid experts crucial for seniors

Since their inception in 1965, hearing aids have been excluded from Medicare coverage. As lawmakers in Washington debate the $3.5 trillion budget bill, hopefully they follow Sen. Chuck Schumer’s commitment to New York’s seniors by correcting this oversight.

If coverage includes hearing aids, hearing aid specialists must be eligible to provide care for seniors. New York’s more than 350 hearing aid specialists serve as trusted, qualified providers of hearing health care. Expanding Medicare to cover hearing aids but only relying on audiologists for care would be particularly harmful in New York since 34 of the 62 counties have fewer than five audiologists, and 11 have no audiologists. Failing to include specialists as Medicare providers will cause New York seniors to face long wait times for appointments and long-distance travel to get care.

It’s now up to Schumer and his colleagues to pass this legislation in a way that benefits New York’s seniors.

— David Carr, Manorville

The writer is president of the Hearing HealthCare Alliance of New York.