A Common Sense Vote on Latah Health Services
Time for the Flies to Get Out of the Ointment
By Joan Opyr, 2-06-07
Today, Latah County voters are being asked to decide whether or not to approve the sale of Latah Health Services to Moscow’s Gritman Hospital for $1. That’s right—one dollar. Sound like a bargain? Think again. Latah Health Services is in dire straights. It costs the county $10,000 a month to operate and maintain, and it needs an estimated $1.5 to $1.8 million in upgrades and repairs. If Gritman purchases the facility, it will continue to provide home and community health care services, including adult day health.
In the entire state of Idaho, there are only two other “county homes.” One is in Boundary County; the other is in Blaine. These facilities serve the poor and the indigent and are almost entirely reliant on Medicare, Medicaid, and hefty taxpayer subsidies. Latah County’s Commissioners, in their wisdom, decided that voters here would not be willing to fork out what it would take to keep Latah Health Services in business. I’m sorry for that. I’m sorry we’re so short-sighted, mean-spirited, and tight-fisted, but I am forced to agree with the commissioners that a tax increase at this time and in this place would never fly.
So what do we do? Some of Moscow’s developers would like to see Latah Health Services and its five-plus acres sold to the highest bidder—not as a going concern but as a property to be rebuilt, renovated, or razed to the ground and replaced with some profit-making business. They’re not interested in the need for a county home, for assisted living, or adult day health. Latah Health Services is located on Palouse River Drive, and there’s gold in them thar hills. Location, location, location. Developers want the land. The idea that the property might be transferred to Gritman and continue to serve long-term community interests rather than short-term business desires is tough for the hard-hearted to swallow.
We need Latah Health Services. Under George W. Bush, Medicaid and Medicare have been cut to the bone. Neither program is adequately funded. There is a crying need for affordable assisted living facilities, but as long as the federal government insists upon playing Scrooge at home and Stooge abroad, there will be plenty of money for bombs but not enough for beds.
When you’re faced with a gaping wound in the social safety net, no salve is going to cure it. Would I prefer to see Latah Health Services continue to operate as an assisted care facility? Of course, but I’m a reluctant realist. It’s time for the flies to get out of the ointment. We’ve got to do the best we can with the money we’ve got. The only way to preserve Latah Health Services is to sell it to Gritman Hospital and to allow that organization – which is on a sound, solid financial footing – to take over the facility and continue to operate it in the best public interest.
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Comments
good insite and a wonderfully written article about the poor and needy !! :)