County Health System

Almost from the birth of the County Medical Services program, year after year around the end or the beginning of the fiscal year, the program has gone into convulsion. This year, however, the convulsion came sooner and has been more sustained.

If we can go to the moon and shoot a satellite into space, with our Rand Corp. and Heritage Foundation and all our other think tanks, is it beyond our capability to have a health care system that works?

Is it because the CMS recipients are not voters--and therefore do not have a lobby--that CMS has become a political football?

It is not enough that a funding source is found, whether it be county, state or federal.

It is not enough that funds last three months or three years. It is not enough that the hospital house them while I heal ailing bodies, if they have to return to the same socioeconomic deprivation--not by their own choice, but by accident of birth or perhaps a twist of fate.

We delighted in the success of our weaponry in the Persian Gulf. We are made jubilant by our victory.

It is true Saddam Hussein has to go. It is true we need oil to fuel our economy. But it is equally true that there are other economic necessities more vulnerable. Should they not be attended to with as much financial responsibility as a safe and secure oil supply?

Rejoice America! Rejoice in the safe return of our soldiers! Weep, America! Weep for the children who will go without immunization, for the many women without adequate prenatal care and the sickly children they will bear.

And weep for the countless faceless and nameless heroes who go cold and hungry, their minds and bodies numbed with pain!

LINA L. SCHEIN M.D.

Former Medical Director

Vista Community Clinic