Tobacco Settlement Money

* Re “Hospital Launches Radio Ads for Tobacco Funds Measure,” Aug. 22.

Can 38,000 voters who signed a petition about the tobacco settlement money be wrong? Can that many people be misled and deceived?

You bet. All it takes is for a bunch of unscrupulous lawyers and political rip-off artists to get together with a certain hospital director who sees it as OK to spend a million or two of his nonprofit hospital’s money to get his hands on $260 million of the taxpayers’ money.

The tobacco settlement funds were secured solely at public expense to reimburse public funds spent of behalf of public programs to provide health services to those who were treated for tobacco-related illnesses at public expense.

So now we’re supposed to give that $260 million to private hospitals and doctors so they can “safeguard” the money. Right!

C. JANE TRUE

Port Hueneme

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I don’t understand how two supposedly financially strapped entities, Community Memorial Hospital and Ventura County, can afford yet again to wage war with each other. Could not these legal fee dollars offset the very budget deficits they are whining about?

I propose a third alternative for the use of the tobacco settlement windfall: Give it back to the people who are paying for it.

The money used to pay these settlements is derived from revenue from the sale of cigarettes. Those people buying cigarettes, the “victims,” are entitled to a share of their investment.

I propose that the tobacco settlement money be invested in a fund to pay for current and future tobacco-related illnesses. Cautious investing should produce a 10% income, more than enough to cover administrative costs.

It would be inequitable for smokers alone to pay the cost of the county’s mismanagement of funds, poor accounting procedures or inflated “uninsured patient costs.”

IRENE PETERS

Ventura