Tobacco Initiative Funds for Hospitals

Re “The Money Talks,” Ventura County editorial, Aug. 6, and “Tobacco Initiative,” Ventura County Letters, Aug. 13.

This is not about people groveling for a few bucks lying in the street. It is about a brand of medical care available in this county for the next half a century.

The former Ventura County General Hospital, a taxpayer-supported instrument of the county government, has transmogrified itself into Ventura County Medical Center, the better to compete with the private institutions in the county. At the same time, that same county government can slip some of its obligations to care for the indigent onto those same private hospitals.

This one-two punch is a tremendous advantage for the county and a severe competitive handicap to all the other hospitals in the area.

If you add all the tobacco money to the county’s coffers for the next 10 years, no crystal ball is needed to see where things are going. In 10 years, Ventura County Medical Center will be the only health care institution left standing.

When push comes to shove, would the taxpayers rather depend on Community Memorial Hospital or Ventura County Medical Center for their care? Would the county government, which has shown itself to be so accountable in the past, be any more so than Community Memorial (whose board, by the way, is composed of honorable members)? Do we need a serious study to see whether patients and taxpayers would be better off without Ventura County Medical Center at all?

These are questions the taxpayers need to reflect on between now and election day, something Community Memorials’s initiative has given them pause to do.

Your editorial says the Community Memorial initiative is an example of how that process is warping the government, but to me it illustrates the precise reason the initiative process is on the books: as a last resort for reason when complacent government and complaisant media bulldoze the public on important issues.

LELAND L. SPRAGUE

Ojai

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Re “Picketers Call on Hospital to Fight Tobacco Initiative,” Aug. 3.

The Times did an excellent job of reporting on the protest against Measure O, by the Coalition Against the Hospital Initiative, at Los Robles hospital.

I would like to clarify a quote that was attributed to me. It stated, “They [HCA-Los Robles Regional Medical Center] want to use public money to help pay their fines.” This is most likely true, but my intent was, “They [all seven hospitals] want to use public money to help pay off their bad debt”--referring to money the hospitals cannot recover from treating patients without insurance and who do not qualify for any services such as MediCal or Medicare. Or, should I say, to pay off the cost of doing business.

As I understand it, the two out of the seven hospitals behind Measure O that qualify for nonprofit status should be treating a percentage of uninsured patients to maintain that status. Shame on these seven hospitals for trying to grab public money they know is not theirs. This cheats every Ventura County taxpayer and could stand as a windfall for the hospitals if Measure O is passed.

I am offended that Jim Lott, spokesman for the Health Care Assn. of Southern California, would imply that the Board of Supervisors is behind the coalition. I am not acquainted with any of the five county supervisors. I read in The Times, about David Maron’s attempt at building a grass-roots movement to stop Community Memorial and Measure O and promptly contacted him. I applaud Maron’s courage and leadership. As a mother of two small children, I want the future of Ventura County to rest in the taxpayers’ hands.

RACHEL ULRICH

Ventura