It’s Not Too Late to Save Marriage of County, UC Irvine

Some of the worst marriages result when the parties don’t really love each other but have something the other needs.

Witness the holy union between the County of Orange and the University of California, Irvine. This may be the worst match since Liz Taylor and Eddie Fisher, but here they are 15 years later, still arguing over finances and responsibilities and threatening to go their separate ways but still trying to work things out.

In the early 1970s, the still-emerging UC Irvine needed a hospital to go with its medical school but couldn’t afford to build a new one on campus. The county, seeing that hospital costs, especially for indigent care, were rapidly climbing, thought that unloading the aging county medical center would be a great idea.

The dean of the UCI med school said the county should give the hospital away because it would cost so much to fix it up. Gov. Edmund G. Brown Jr. called it a “lemon.” But by July of 1976, the deal was done, and the university bought the hospital and the land for $8 million.

No sooner had the champagne been drunk on the wedding night than the two sides resumed fighting, mostly over money and philosophy.

UCI complained that the county wasn’t making good on promised payments and wasn’t committed to paying for indigent health care. The county countered by questioning UCI’s billing procedures. Robert Thomas, county chief administrative officer, captured the essence of many rocky marriages when he said of UCI in 1979: “If we paid them everything they asked us for, there isn’t all that money in the world. . . . We haven’t got the (bleeping) money. They make me mad.”

In 1980, the county grand jury told the two to quit squabbling and to end the “atmosphere of conflict and distrust.”

But you know how some people can be. Basically, this was your classic case of a couple that wanted to get married; they just didn’t want to be married.

The arguments continue today, made worse because the passage of time without solving problems almost always makes them worse.

The latest news is the county’s 11th-hour response to give UCI another $3 million to help offset continuing deficits at the hospital. The county said it can’t be expected to do it again next year; UCI says it is receiving an inordinate percentage of the county’s poor patients and isn’t being reimbursed sufficiently. It says it can’t be expected to run up deficits every year over indigent care that should be the county’s responsibility. The UC regents, playing a good game of hardball, threatened to close the hospital.

Some parts of this argument are easy to settle. It shouldn’t be the university’s responsibility to pick up the tab for indigent care.

That’s a responsibility of government. Or, if the private sector would like to step in and guarantee that every worker has health-care protection, so be it.

Historically, this county hasn’t had its heart totally in health care for indigents. And while the county has been saying since the late 1970s that it can’t afford the indigent-care hospital bills, a more apt response would be that it just didn’t want to pay them.

But the county isn’t the sole culprit here. The state has worked a little sleight of hand that has made the county’s role appear more callous than it really is.

The problem has led to lawsuits in San Diego County, a situation that local officials are no doubt watching closely.

A month ago, the San Diego County Board of Supervisors voted to terminate health-care programs for adult indigents unless the state kicked in more money. Convinced that the county wasn’t bluffing, the Legal Aid Society sued to keep San Diego from shutting down those services. The society won an injunction.

San Diego County then turned around and sued the state for cutting indigent-care funds to the counties, including Orange County, while still mandating indigent-care programs.

That suit is pending.

Here at home, Supervisor Harriett M. Wieder has put together a health-care task force that, she says, is intended once and for all to get the county ahead of the curve on indigent care.

“Health care is the next public policy issue that’s ready to explode,” she said Thursday. “We’ve had housing, transportation, the jail. This is the sleeping giant, and it’s even going to affect people who have insurance.”

While conceding that the county’s commitment has been lacking in the past, Wieder said she sees a new aggressiveness within county government in recent months to solve the problem.

Would that the county had begun much sooner, but better late than never.

Two weeks ago, Supervisor Don R. Roth said, “Good planning is what leads to long-term fixes.”

That no doubt made some of the folks chuckle over at UCI.

But if Wieder’s optimism is well-founded, maybe it’s not too late for those star-crossed lovers at the county and UC Irvine to make it work, after all.

Who knows, this could be the start of a beautiful relationship.

Dana Parsons’ column appears Wednesday, Friday and Sunday. Readers may reach Parsons by writing to him at The Times Orange County Edition, 1375 Sunflower Ave., Costa Mesa, Calif. 92626, or calling (714) 966-7821.