Opinion editor's note: Star Tribune Opinion publishes letters from readers online and in print each day. To contribute, click here.

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I was pleased to read the article chronicling Mark Christensen's struggle with a denied medical claim ("The care was crucial. He had insurance. The hospital billed him $155,493," Oct. 28). I was pleased not for Christensen but that the Star Tribune would see fit to bring this topic to public attention. What the public likely does not realize is that denials like this are not rare but common. They create angst for patients and for medical care providers, often unnecessarily. They add expense to the medical care system and often result in delays of treatment. And in the end the denials are usually overturned, as they were in Christensen's case.

I am an orthopedic surgeon at TRIA specializing in hip and knee replacement surgery. I deal with payer denials for preauthorization for surgery commonly. These denials occupy time when I should be caring for patients rather than appealing denials that have no basis. I have never failed to have a denial overturned. So why do payers keep wasting their time and money issuing denials that in the end are rarely upheld? Because there is no penalty for them to do so. When the denial is overturned they simply have to pay for a service that they should have paid for in the first place. I would propose, as a solution, that payers incur some sort of financial penalty if a denial is subsequently overturned. Perhaps Empire BlueCross Blue Shield would have thought twice about denying Christensen's claim if, for example, the overturned claim would require increased reimbursement (like perhaps $200,000).

Paul Johnson, Eden Prairie

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On Nov. 7 the Star Tribune published a story about Bright Health and its claims processing "errors" ("Bright Health fined over claims errors"). I think anyone who reads the article will come away with the belief that Bright Health was engaged in intentionally avoiding paying claims for which it was responsible. Two thoughts about this. First, Bright Health executives should be held accountable for this unacceptable behavior.

Mark Brakke, Coon Rapids

The writer is a physician.

I am a 71-year-old man who grew up in the Twin Cities.

Last week I had an experience I could never have imagined. I left my home and drove to a home across the street from Lake of the Isles to thank Rep. Angie Craig for her vote to censure Rep. Rashida Tlaib for a speech in which she knowingly used the term "from the river to the sea" as a euphemism for the total destruction of the state of Israel and the Jewish people ("Craig cast vote for Tlaib censure," Nov. 9).

When I arrived at the home, there was a large truck angled on the street with several protesters with microphones chanting anti-Israel slogans in support of Palestine. When I entered the home, there was a civil discussion between those disappointed with the congresswoman's vote and others like myself who supported her vote.

I later realized that I felt no fear, only anger and rage. Then I thought about what might have happened if they knew I was a Jew.

What I experienced had nothing to do with the compassion many of us feel for the Palestinian people. What I experienced was outright hate and antisemitism unleashed by the horrific attack by Hamas on Israel and the Jewish people.

Thank you, Angie Craig, for your moral clarity and standing up to the hate speech by an elected official in our U.S. Congress.

Barry L. Ross, Minnetonka

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The killing will continue until there is a widespread "yes" to both questions.

Robert J. Krueger, Bloomington

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As I get older, I am getting increasingly frustrated at people's lack of critical thinking skills and media literacy. Why is so much taken at face value, instead of pausing, saying, "That can't be right; I am missing information" and asking questions to learn more? When we saw Colin Kaepernick take a knee, people assumed wrongly that his message was of disrespect for our troops, instead of seeking out what his protest was actually about. People heard "Black Lives Matter" and assumed it meant that Black lives mattered more or that other colors of people didn't matter, instead of finding the voices where the movement originated to see what their message really means and why they were saying it. And here we are today with the same twisted assumptions about Palestinian freedom. If you can't see the colonialism, the apartheid and the genocide happening right before us, it's time to take a pause and start seeking out Palestinian voices — of which I'm not seeing enough of in this paper but have found elsewhere.

Danielle Durda, Richfield

We have just completed another election cycle. The only thing that is certain is that we have lost our way. There are two sides and no compromise. It's an all-or-nothing, my-way-or-the-highway world. There is little to no honest political discourse. Everything is accusatory, inflammatory, name-calling. This insanity has become normalized.

And our so-called leaders remain silent while the Republican candidates continue to battle, the leading candidate continues to proselytize from various courtrooms, and our president continues to muddle along with an ever-declining level of approval.

U.S. Rep. Dean Phillips is so far alone in his courageous effort to lead us to a more electable candidate. Republican leadership ignores the swirling debacle, apparently hoping that things will sort themselves out without leadership having to address the elephant in the room, i.e., Donald Trump.

Where are the leaders who can address the issues on both sides and present us with viable alternatives that can lead us to a more promising future? Is anyone out there willing to show this country the way? We are running out of time.