Delay Sought on Tobacco Funds Vote

Physicians and other health care advocates have asked Orange County supervisors to delay a vote scheduled next week that would allocate most of the county’s $912-million tobacco settlement windfall to debt repayment and jail construction.

The Health Alliance to Reinvest the Tobacco Settlement has been campaigning for six months to have the county spend most of its share of the nationwide tobacco settlement on unmet health care needs.

The group, which includes business leaders as well as health care activists, last week wrote board Chairman Charles V. Smith asking him to delay the hearing, which is set for Tuesday. The alliance wants time to draw up plans detailing how the money, which will be received annually over 25 years in increments of approximately $36.5 million, could be allotted to address health problems countywide.

Smith could not be reached Wednesday, and other supervisors were split over the delay. “I don’t see what the rush is,” Supervisor Todd Spitzer said, noting that the money will not arrive before July.

Spitzer said some on the board fear a delay would give health advocates more time to gather support. But “that doesn’t bother me,” he said. “We have to be able to look everybody in the eye and say we are making the best decision for Orange County in the long run.”

Supervisor Cynthia Coad said Wednesday she is against any delay. Coad backed the county’s current plan, which would see the tobacco cash going largely to pay off bankruptcy and pension debt and finance jail construction and operations.

“We need to move ahead,” said Coad on Wednesday, adding that “health issues are very well addressed” in the current county plan. She also pointed out that the jail plan includes a substantial investment in a drug and alcohol rehabilitation unit at a new jail.

County Chief Financial Officer Gary Burton said the county plan would include perhaps $7 million a year for direct health needs.

In pressing for more attention and funding for health care, the coalition has been relying in large part on the Orange County Needs Assessment, a 400-page blueprint of health care needs in the county. Released in April, it detailed who gets sick and who gets care. It points out county funds spent on health care have been cut from $42 million before the bankruptcy to $30 million last year.

Among its key findings are that more than one in six county residents have no health care coverage, including 90,000 children. It also found that half of those without insurance are Latino or Vietnamese, and that 13% of county residents are eligible for Medi-Cal, yet only 8% participate.

In the past six months, coalition members have pressed the county to use the document as a guideline for improving health care.