Health Care Access in Short Supply
At least three times in the last six months The Times has run an article or editorial on the precarious state of the Southland’s trauma care network--the latest being “Closed Door at the ER” (Aug. 7). How about stepping up to the plate with some ideas? We can do something to save the trauma care network while shifting much of the cost of trauma care squarely to where it belongs--on the shootings and transportation accidents that account for so many trauma admissions.
Place a nominal (one-cent) tax on each round of ammunition and each gallon of motor fuel sold in L.A. County. If the program works as expected, it could be expanded to the state as a whole. As other major injury sources are identified, they could be subject to the same nominal tax.
The moneys collected could only be used for trauma and other emergency medical care. To prevent a repeat of the “Lotto for education” debacle, our legislators must be prohibited from drawing off existing trauma care funds for other purposes.
The loss of even one trauma center endangers every citizen who might suffer life-threatening injuries within the response zone of that hospital--regardless of whether the victim is insured.
Neil Clark
Long Beach
Your Aug. 6 report about challenges facing hospital emergency rooms (“Amid Nationwide Prosperity, ERs See a Growing Emergency”) and your subsequent editorial help focus public attention on the need to invest more resources in health care and health coverage.
Adding more hospital beds will not solve the problem unless we can add more health care professionals to treat the sick. Hospitals have a hard time providing care to the sickest of the sick if laws and regulations inhibit them from making sure that people seeking care from an emergency room can get timely care in the most appropriate location.
Finally, we need to find ways to expand private and public health coverage so people can go to the doctor when they need to, instead of going to the emergency room when they have to.
Charles N. Kahn III
Pres., Federation of American
Hospitals, Washington