Settlement Would Aid Health Care, County Says

If Ventura County keeps $260 million in disputed tobacco settlement money, the funds would be devoted to a variety of health care programs, such as tobacco education, immunization services and mental health programs, according to a county report released Thursday.

The report by Chief Administrative Officer Harry Hufford marks a shift in the county’s original plan to use some of the tobacco money for other purposes, including helping to pay off debts and to plug budget shortfalls.

That was before Community Memorial Hospital launched an initiative in March seeking to transfer the funds from county coffers to seven private area hospitals, with the intent being to ensure the money is spent on health care.

His report “is the reverse of the tobacco initiative,” said Hufford, who put together the study at the request of the Board of Supervisors. “They’re talking about inpatient services in private hospitals. The thrust of this [report] is to take tobacco money and make it available to the public in the form of preventive care.”

Hufford recommends establishing a five-year planning cycle, where county officials and the public could reevaluate priorities and funding of programs. This would be in direct contrast to Community Memorial’s tobacco initiative, which would disburse the money among the private hospitals over 25 years.

His plan would offer policymakers more flexibility as health care legislation and funding changed in the future, Hufford said.

In addition, Hufford’s report includes a variety of plans, ranging in highest preference from public and mental health programs to low-priority services already paid for by the county, such as inpatient care at the public hospital.

The report includes, in varying degrees of priority, potential partnerships with nonprofit organizations, the building of new public hospital facilities, and even suggests creating a “monitoring mechanism” to ensure that hospitals treat their fair share of indigents.

A Community Memorial spokesman called the report “pandering,” and said it was a shameless attempt to influence a possible court decision. Lawyers from Community Memorial and the county will debate the legality of the initiative and the supervisors’ decision to keep it off the ballot at a hearing Monday.

“This is a cynical attempt on the part of the county to influence the court into denying the people of Ventura County a right to vote on the issue,” said Doug Dowie of the Los Angeles public relations firm Fleishman Hillard. “It’s no coincidence, they’ve had two years to come up with suggestions on what to do, and they release this grab bag of goodies and threats on the eve of the court hearing.”

Hufford was instructed by the board to study the issue and report back with his findings, which will be presented at the supervisors’ meeting Tuesday. The board could vote to schedule a series of community meetings that would gauge the public’s feelings about how the money should be spent. Supervisors Frank Schillo and Judy Mikels, who head the committee dealing with the tobacco settlement, were scheduled to discuss the report this morning.

Mikels said the two would likely schedule six public meetings beginning in September.

“This is strictly for the citizens,” Mikels said. “It’s not for the boards of hospitals and not for the doctors. This is their money and they should decide how to spend it.”

Making a similar argument, an alliance of community groups gathered Thursday to kick off a campaign that would challenge the initiative should it reach the ballot.

The Coalition Against the Hospital Initiative--which includes members from private business, the League of Women Voters, the American Lung Assn. and the largest county employees’ union--called on Community Memorial to drop its lawsuit, and cut ties with hospital lawyer Steve Merksamer, who they say has worked too closely with the tobacco industry.

Members of county government are legally restrained from campaigning against the initiative.

Community Memorial’s actions are “nothing more than a blatant attempt to line their own pocketbooks,” said David Maron, chairman of the group and a former board member of the Camarillo Health Care District. Maron argued that the initiative would require little oversight of the private hospitals, and that tobacco-prevention programs are a low priority.

“The way it’s written, that’s the last priority,” said Debbie Weeks, executive director of the American Lung Assn., and a member of the coalition. She said that if the money goes to the county, the coalition will keep an eagle eye on the board to make sure the money goes to health care.

“We simply feel strongly that funds should go to health care,” she said.