Hospital’s Ads Target Tobacco Settlement Funds

The battle to win over Ventura County voters began Monday when radio advertisements sponsored by Community Memorial Hospital began airing on stations throughout the region.

The radio spots are meant to persuade voters that Community Memorial and seven private hospitals would make better use of $260 million in tobacco settlement money than the county.

Supervisors and Community Memorial have struggled over who will get the $260-million tobacco settlement money, which amounts to about $10 million a year for the next 25 years. The money is destined for the county to make up for government’s expense in treating smoking-related illnesses, but the settlement does not require the county to spend it on health care. Backers of Measure O, however, say the supervisors would waste the funds on non-health-care programs.

The ads pointedly remind listeners that the county is under FBI investigation for overbilling Medicare through much of the 1990s, implying it cannot be trusted with the tobacco dollars.

The first installment of the media blitz, which will include newspaper ads, direct mailings and billboards, also accuses the Board of Supervisors of spending none of the settlement money so far on health care and “squandering” the first $3 million of it on a legal settlement for overbilling Medicare.

The hospital wrote the initiative that would give it and the private hospitals in Ventura County the money. Supervisors refused to put Measure O on the ballot, contending it was an illegal grab of public money. Both sides sued each other, and a judge ruled that the measure should go to a vote.