Karen and Keith and all...
I am troubled by the governor's proposed budget
reductions in health care. Telling childless adults they need not apply
for state subsidized health insurance sounds like discrimination to me (but then
I see that all over the capitol). It is, more importantly,
dumb. Don't you think we pay for the uninsured when they visit emergency
rooms and cost twenty times as much to cure as if they'd gone to a family
practice doctor two weeks or two months earlier? The Adith
Miller Fund isn't paying for all uncompensated care...overall costs are
inflated to accomodate expected unbillables. Rachelle Schultz or any
Winona Health types feel free to correct me if I am wrong...
Higher costs...higher insurance premiums...more
people can't afford them...more uninsured. In less than ten years the
number of uninsured residents in the Winona area has doubled to twenty
percent (that number comes from Winona Health's community survey released this
month)! Since employers are no longer offering coverage to the extent
they once did, I would think government would need to be the provider of
last resort. It will save money in the long run.
We should create a corporate tax structure that
offers incentives to employers to offer health insurance. Doesn't look
like we've got that kind of environment going now.
Unfortunately, all the administration appears
to be concerned with is making this biennium look pretty and the hell with the
long haul. Do you realize that state budget forecasters are FORBIDDEN
BY LAW to say how inflation will impact deficit projections? That's
running state government like a business, by golly.
It's been a while since I posted, so I
thought I would weigh in. As for Keith's suggestion that this is a natural
way for churches and familes to step in...I would say they already do. But
in today's highly regimented health care reality, non-professionals cannot
provide services that are provided in clinics and hospitals. Support
services, yes...critical care services, no. On a related note, we Sebos
and Krages have a tradition of caring for the infirm in our family our
selves when possible...but not all families have the resources that we
have.
Penny wise, pound foolish.
Bob Sebo
Winona
