November 19, 2003
We owe thanks to La Clinica
Health care for all costs money,and we all pay one way or another
The numbers are shocking — and they’re getting worse. One in five Jackson County residents has no health insurance of any kind. And many of those are children.
Fortunately for them — and fortunately for the rest of us — La Clinica del Valle and the Community Health Center are there to fill the gap.
The two clinics serve county residents with limited resources: those without jobs, those with jobs that provide no insurance, those with jobs and insurance who cannot afford to pay the premiums to cover their children.
La Clinica’s 15th anniversary finds it struggling to meet the growing need in the community as state support for its efforts declines and future support is threatened.
Cuts in the Oregon Health Plan made to help balance the state budget already have cost the clinic $800,000 out of an annual budget of $5.1 million. If voters reject the Legislature’s temporary tax increase package in February, more cuts will surely follow.
Jackson County residents who don’t need to turn to La Clinica or the Community Health Center for health care may not realize the service these nonprofit operations provide. If they did not exist, the county Health Department would need to step in and provide care.
Either way, taxpayers help foot the bill. But taking away tax money from these clinics won’t make the costs go away, and we all will continue to pay them.
Here’s why:
If the clinics must make further cuts in the services they provide, more people will get no health care at all, even as more people join the ranks of the uninsured.
What happens to those people?
As long as they stay relatively healthy, not much. But they won’t get regular checkups and they won’t get preventive care to ward off serious illness in the future.
If they get sick, however, they will wind up in local hospital emergency rooms. Hospitals are required by law to treat everyone who walks in the door, regardless of ability to pay.
If more people with no insurance seek treatment at hospitals, the hospitals must cover the cost of that treatment. They do that by passing on those costs to those who can pay — and their insurance companies — through higher fees.
Keep that in mind when you consider where your taxes go. Taking money away from government doesn’t make the costs go away. Sooner or later, the bill will come due, and we’ll all help to pay it, whether we like it or not.
Santas take a break
It appears the weird Santas that were part of Medford’s downtown Christmas decorations for the past two years have taken a powder — at least for this season.
What became of the wall-hanging Santas? Last year, rather than hang them in conspicuous spots, the Heart of Medford Association put them in obscure locations around town and offered prizes to folks who found the most Santas.
This year — some would say "thankfully" — HOMA didn’t have enough manpower to get the odd-looking Santas positioned on walls downtown and left them put away wherever you store wall-climbing Santas fashioned after European holiday tableaux.
Sue Musolf, a member of the Winter Light Festival committee, said the Santas could return next year if HOMA gets more volunteer help.
We’re not sure if this is good news or bad. Last year we wrote that if the contest idea didn’t work out, maybe the Santas should go elsewhere, somewhere far, far away. This year, we like the new lights, and we commend the volunteers who have worked hard to make downtown
festive for the holiday season.
As for the Santas, in the words of the song, "well, maybe next year ..."
