About Those ‘Trims’ in Health Care . . .
Re “Raabe Case: Time to Move On,” July 29:
About Matt Raabe, I certainly agree with your editorial in today’s Times. It is time to let poor Matthew alone--he was the ultimate scapegoat, and the only person who spent a single day in jail as a result of the county bankruptcy fiasco. However, I take issue with your statement about the “fallout,” where you say, “There were trims in health care.”
This county’s abysmal failure to provide primary health care services for almost half a million uninsured people was not just “trimmed” when $12 million was cut from the less than $40 million in the county health budget. The loss of one-third of public health field nurse positions was not just a trim! The already inadequate county health care budget was savagely cut.
Now with the passage of Measure H, some much-needed additional funding is coming to the county to make up for some of the gaps in the health care system, which the county still fails to fund adequately. And guess what? The county plans to divert the interest earned by the tobacco settlement trust fund into the general fund! I’m told that county counsel has advised the health care agency that this is legal!
Correct me if I’m wrong, but isn’t this exactly what Matt Raabe went to jail for?
Felix Schwarz
Irvine
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