ORANGE COUNTY IN BANKRUPTCY : Doctors’ Group Opposes Cuts in Health Services

Orange County Medical Assn. representatives Thursday hand-delivered a letter to the Board of Supervisors opposing proposed cuts in county services, contending that health-care providers cannot sustain additional budget reductions.

“We’re starting at the bottom and they want to go down,” said Sam Roth, spokesman for the association, which represents about 2,500 physicians in the county.

In the wake of the county’s bankruptcy, Orange County officials have proposed $3 million in cuts to health-care agencies through June and another $11 million in reductions during the following budget year. The Health Care Agency could lose more than a quarter of its county funds.

And in a move that has angered advocates for low-income residents, the county has asked state lawmakers to relieve it of the responsibility to contribute to certain state-funded programs for the needy, including welfare grants, medical services for the indigent and outreach programs for drug-addicted expectant mothers.

The medical association’s leaders contend that Orange County already falls behind many other California counties in its public health spending.

“The legislators need to understand that before they yank the rug out from under us, they need to think about the ramifications,” said Dr. Peter Anderson, president of the association.

In their letter to supervisors, association members also said:

* Additional cuts to the health-care system would not solve the county’s budget problems and would only strain existing health services, shifting costs from preventive programs to hospital emergency rooms. “We’re dealing with a safety net that has absorbed its limit,” Roth said.

* Progress made in recent years, such as the Maternal Outreach Management System and OPTIMA, the county’s managed health care delivery system, could be imperiled by further budget reductions.

“I know it’s terrible job for them,” said Barbara Talento, chairwoman of United Way’s Health Care Council. “But I think they’re looking for other people to bail them out. Well, sooner or later, they’ve got to realize that they’ve got to bail themselves out, and hopefully, not on the backs of the poor and the weakest in our community.”