Ballot Measure O

* We who have no health insurance are not welcome at private hospitals. They will not treat us except in emergencies. That is their corporate policy. So we are obliged to go elsewhere to receive nonemergency hospital care. We are obliged to use the public health care system.

In Ventura, luckily, there is a robust and capable public health care system. It provides a hospital for all of us, whether we have insurance or not. However, in Ventura there is also Community Memorial Hospital, a powerful corporation that wants to undermine our public health care system.

A few years ago, that corporation blocked funding for new construction at the public hospital in Ventura. To do it, that corporation reportedly spent more than $3 million in campaign spending and legal fees.

Now that corporation is taking a bolder approach. It is attempting to do what truly evil corporations do: rewrite the law to provide millions in corporate welfare while repealing the safety net for the uninsured and the poor.

That effort--Measure O--would disable our public health care system. Measure O would rewrite Ventura County law to provide approximately a quarter of a billion dollars in corporate welfare. Measure O would be a 25-year plague of hardships for the uninsured and the poor of this community.

We have a strong public health care system. Do not let it be disabled by a ruthless and shallow corporation. Vote no on O!”

THOMAS PRINDIVILLE

HIGGINS

Ventura

* Access to health care is at the forefront of national debate. The percentage of the population that can’t afford health insurance or medical treatment continues to increase, alarming residents, leaders and health care providers alike.

The tobacco settlement offers a golden opportunity to address the health care crisis in Ventura County. Measure O places a very important decision directly in the voters’ hands and prevents elected officials from fumbling away a chance to serve the public well.

HASKELL W. CHANDLER

Ventura

* Health care providers must find the balance between their need to sustain themselves financially and their moral obligation to help those in need who lack the ability to pay. Private hospitals face the same challenges.

What separates the private sector, of which I am a part, and the county system is that the county is the safety net, mandated to assume responsibility for the health and welfare of all our citizens regardless of ability to pay. In good times and in bad, we ask the county system to be there for those in need.

Our Board of Supervisors is mandated to oversee these programs and has always had to do so with painfully inadequate revenues. Tobacco settlement funds could make a difference in the lives of so many who rely on this system, especially the young and the elderly.

To take these funds out of the control of our elected officials would be to remove all accountability for how the money is ultimately spent, and this is absolutely unthinkable.

This Measure O is yet another in a long line of badly conceived initiatives, in this case clearly deceptive and self-serving. I urge you to join me in voting a resounding no on proposition O.

MARK LISAGOR, DDS

Camarillo

* Re “Ventura Condemns Measure O,” Sept. 26.

Our City Council did a ridiculous thing by taking a position against Measure O. It was obvious that this was just a political ploy to discredit Councilman Jim Monahan for the benefit of Steve Bennett, his opponent in the race for county supervisor.

A yes vote on Measure O would be good for the citizens of Ventura. A strong Community Memorial makes good economic sense. Measure O is the only way to guarantee that the tobacco settlement funds will be spent entirely on health care. The initiative would preserve this money to help defray the costs of hospitalizations for those who can’t afford it. Money would also be spent of home health care education. How could this not be good for our city?

I urge people to get all the facts and vote yes on Measure O.

MARIE ANDERSON

Ventura

* The local members of the National Assn. of Social Workers, who care deeply about access to health care by uninsured members of our community, voice strong opposition to Measure O.

Ventura County Medical Center, a public institution, is the primary provider of care to the indigent and is the safety net for the uninsured; it should receive money from the tobacco settlement.

Measure O has no safeguards or accountability to ensure that money awarded to private hospitals would in fact be spent for health care services.

Passage of this measure would set a dangerous precedent of providing publicly awarded money to private institutions to conduct their business.

Do not be misled by slick, expensive brochures. This money also could and should have gone to health care. Vote no on Measure O.

MARIANNE SLAUGHTER

Camarillo

* The intent of Measure O is to ensure that the tobacco settlement funds stay in health care. The money should be used to compensate hospitals and physicians who care for indigent patients.

Ventura County Medical Center already receives funds from the state for caring for indigent patients. Why shouldn’t other hospitals and physicians be compensated?

The initiative also supports scholarships for health care workers. This is good news, especially with the nursing shortage today.

When Measure O is passed, it will be managed by a commission of representatives from the acute care hospitals’ physicians and board members, not by [Community Memorial executive director Michael] Bakst. I think it’s time [for] people [to] look at the principles of what the initiative stands for and not focus on personalities.

LISA LARRAMENDY

Ojai

* I would like to compliment the Ventura City Council for its 5-1 vote to oppose Measure O. It is unfortunate the vote was not 7-0.

Taking a proactive approach rather than waiting until after the November election was a wise decision. Perhaps if county supervisors had had the same moral courage with the tobacco settlement funds earlier, this silly ballot measure would not even be before the voters.

Failing to focus debate on whether Measure O passes seems to be the equivalent of living in Florida and not boarding up your house just before a major storm and planning on doing something after the storm has vented its fury and damaged your home.

There was talk that the City Council vote was a political agenda. If allowing the public to hear where and why elected officials stand on an important issue impacting our city is such an agenda, then I applaud it.

I strongly urge the voters to vote no on Measure O.

JOHN S. JONES

Ventura

* I find it amazing that our county officials can say they are concerned about improving health care in Ventura County when their actions show otherwise. Even though the hiring freeze has been lifted, county officials still felt it was necessary to close one of the Ventura clinics that provided mental health services.

Only a yes vote on Measure O will ensure that health care services are still being provided at adequate levels throughout Ventura County. Send a message to our supervisors: Vote yes on Measure O.

RACHAEL PAPPAS

Ventura

* As a physician, I have read with great interest the heartfelt letters both for and against Measure O. We seem to be losing sight of where these funds came from and the inherent mandate of how they should be spent.

As a response to taxpayer-funded lawsuits from numerous states, the tobacco industry paid $246 billion compensation for the injury and death caused by its products. The $261 million over the next 25 years is Ventura County’s share of this settlement.

This is blood money awarded for our friends and loved ones who have suffered the painful ravages of nicotine addiction and who died from cancer and emphysema.

I have seen the results of long-term tobacco use up close and personal. As a practicing oncologist for more than two decades I have cared for more than 500 patients with lung cancer, only a few of whom survived their disease. My mother died of metastatic lung cancer after 50 years of smoking, which she started at 16.

With the funds from the tobacco settlement we have a window of opportunity to make a difference in the future of Ventura County residents. I believe the primary use of these funds should be prevention and treatment of tobacco addiction.

Considering the source of this settlement, it is unethical and immoral to spend these dollars on paying fines or shoring up the bottom line of any hospital. These funds should be kept in the public domain. We as taxpayers have a sacred obligation to those who have died from tobacco-related disease to make absolutely certain [that] it is spent to reduce the death and suffering of future generations.

EVAN D. SLATER

Ventura

* The national media are reporting how nursing shortages are adversely affecting the medical care we receive. Hospitals are struggling to afford more nurses or training for new and veteran nurses.

Complicating matters is the amount of money hospitals lose because they are morally and legally obligated to treat people who cannot pay their bills. Loss of revenue puts a strain on hospitals’ ability to offer professional, quality care in a timely manner. That’s why I support Measure O. Measure O proposes to increase and improve the pool of nurses in Ventura County. The measure’s provision for tobacco settlement money for nursing scholarships is an idea that should have been devised years ago.

Measure O not only would provide funds to care for people who have no means to pay for health care, it also would expand the nursing pool and quality of care in Ventura County.

ROBIN WEBER

Ventura