[Vision2020] LHS: Time for the Flies to Get Out of the Ointment

Saundra Lund sslund at roadrunner.com
Tue Feb 6 17:43:33 PST 2007


Visionaries:

I just read this great article on New West & thought some of you might be
interested in this piece.


A Common Sense Vote on Latah Health Services
Time for the Flies to Get Out of the Ointment

By Joan Opyr, 2-06-07 

Today, Latah County voters are being asked to decide whether or not to
approve the sale of Latah Health Services to Moscow's Gritman Hospital for
$1.  That's right-one dollar.  Sound like a bargain?  Think again.  Latah
Health Services is in dire straights.  It costs the county $10,000 a month
to operate and maintain, and it needs an estimated $1.5 to $1.8 million in
upgrades and repairs.  If Gritman purchases the facility, it will continue
to provide home and community health care services, including adult day
health. 

In the entire state of Idaho, there are only two other "county homes." One
is in Boundary County; the other is in Blaine.  These facilities serve the
poor and the indigent and are almost entirely reliant on Medicare, Medicaid,
and hefty taxpayer subsidies.  Latah County's Commissioners, in their
wisdom, decided that voters here would not be willing to fork out what it
would take to keep Latah Health Services in business.  I'm sorry for that.
I'm sorry we're so short-sighted, mean-spirited, and tight-fisted, but I am
forced to agree with the commissioners that a tax increase at this time and
in this place would never fly. 

So what do we do?  Some of Moscow's developers would like to see Latah
Health Services and its five-plus acres sold to the highest bidder-not as a
going concern but as a property to be rebuilt, renovated, or razed to the
ground and replaced with some profit-making business.  They're not
interested in the need for a county home, for assisted living, or adult day
health.  Latah Health Services is located on Palouse River Drive, and
there's gold in them thar hills.  Location, location, location.  Developers
want the land.  The idea that the property might be transferred to Gritman
and continue to serve long-term community interests rather than short-term
business desires is tough for the hard-hearted to swallow.  

We need Latah Health Services.  Under George W. Bush, Medicaid and Medicare
have been cut to the bone.  Neither program is adequately funded.  There is
a crying need for affordable assisted living facilities, but as long as the
federal government insists upon playing Scrooge at home and Stooge abroad,
there will be plenty of money for bombs but not enough for beds.  

When you're faced with a gaping wound in the social safety net, no salve is
going to cure it.  Would I prefer to see Latah Health Services continue to
operate as an assisted care facility?  Of course, but I'm a reluctant
realist.  It's time for the flies to get out of the ointment.  We've got to
do the best we can with the money we've got.  The only way to preserve Latah
Health Services is to sell it to Gritman Hospital and to allow that
organization - which is on a sound, solid financial footing - to take over
the facility and continue to operate it in the best public interest.

http://www.newwest.net/index.php/main/article/time_for_the_flies_to_get_out_
of_the_ointment/
OR
http://tinyurl.com/3ytn6a



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