Posted on 02/28/2004 7:56:45 PM PST by NormsRevenge
Edited on 04/12/2004 6:06:24 PM PDT by Jim Robinson. [history]
SACRAMENTO (AP) - Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's plan to borrow $15 billion to deal with the state's budget deficit is getting broad but often reluctant support from many of California's major newspapers.
"It's the least damaging way for California to begin to emerge from its fiscal abyss," said the Los Angeles Times in endorsing Proposition 57, the measure on Tuesday's ballot authorizing sale of the bonds.
(Excerpt) Read more at sacbee.com ...
I fault him on it too...because I have been asked to choose without knowing the alternatives. I voted no to everything because I wanted to force hard choices but I may be very unhappy if I get my way.
The Bee obviously doesn't read.
Schwarzenegger has proposed a 1/4% to 1/2% increase in the state component of the sales tax to support the bond sinking fund and purposed $3B annually in unspecified general fund cuts to offset the EFRA fund reductions.
Whatever for, praytell???
A 15% across the board cut in Medical would force the closure of my local hospital. I wouldn't like that at all...and that's just one hypothetical.
A 15% cut won't close any hospitals. Those hospitals will simply ask Medical patients to pay the 15%, as they rightfully should. If Medical patients can't afford the 15% co-pay I'd suggest they find another state where the pickings are better or look to their families for some help.
Hopefully our tax payer supported Saint Nicolas will pack his bags and leave California when the long over due structural reforms (read end of international welfare state) are implemented in California.
Emergency rooms are forced by law to take all comers regardless of ability to pay.
Emergency rooms lose money. Lots of it in rural areas where the patient count is low.
To survive hospitals try to be profitable in other areas. In ours it's the Skilled Nursing facility. That facility is kept afloat by Medicare. A 15% cut in Medicare reimbursal will make the SNF unit unprofitable and close the hospital (the patients and their families are too poor to make up the difference).
If the hospital closes all of Southern Inyo and Northern Kern will be without coverage. This will affect all travel along 395, all employment in the area (specifically DWP employment), all recreational use, and all local business.
Perhaps local area residents can make up the difference with local taxes...but Proposition 13 prevents the imposition of a realistic property tax.
Similar problems face hospitals everywhere. Perhaps everyone should move to another state where the pickings are better.
You, sir, are an ignorant ideologue.
Ideologue is simply a polite way of spelling idiot.
A very sizeable percentage of our emergency room patients are accident victims - people who don't live in our area and don't pay any direct taxes to support our hospital, work as volunteer directors or ambulance personnel, or contribute in any way to the welfare of our community besides eating in our restaurants and pissing in our toilets.
Shouldn't we make them pay more? Wouldn't it be right to charge what the market would bear, check for ability to pay at the scene of an accident, and kick the indigent non-residents onto the shoulder of the road?
How's that for a nice free-market solution, Mr. Pinchpenny?
Our hospital went bankrupt in 1998 or thereabouts...and just got out of bankruptcy, barely. We are not alone. Hospitals are going bankrupt all over the country and have been for quite awhile.
Spare us the apocalyptic rhetoric
You want truth don't you? I'm giving it to you.
A 13% across the board cut is very achievable in preference to this massive new debt load - but some illegal aliens, Sacramento educrats, and Democrat political hacks might have to take it in the shorts
Spare me the ideological baloney and start facing facts.
There are too many freeloaders but many of them are probably your friends. A meat-ax, ideological approach won't solve the problem and could easily make it worse.
The hospital will survive, just like it did from 1938 to the 1970's, because it will no longer be compelled have to provide services to folks who can't pay for them.
The folks how can't pay for the services will move on to an area where they are still welcome.
Perhaps everyone should move to another state where the pickings are better.
Nope just those who moved to California or moved to your neck of the woods and stayed because free medical services allowed them the luxury to stay in the boondocks and still receive municipal services.
I can remember what a quiet place the valley was before the LADWP moved in and stole the water. Do you know any DWP employees Larry?
I can remember when the high desert was a place for men and machines and then the hippies moved in to pursue their leisurely life style. Know any aging hippies who can't pay for their own medical care because they played most of their life instead of working?
Then low income retirees started showing up in their old Winnebago's to squat on government land when the temps were pleasant because they had a cheap internal medicine source just down the road to take care of their hypertension and painful joints. Know any retirees squatting on government land who are there because of the convenience of a nearby, free medical facility?
Then there was the development of Mammoth and Bishop Creek and the well to do kept right on driving at reckless speeds up 395 because they expected that medical services were available along the whole route. Do you see the cars going 75 mph up and down 395 without a care?
If the hippies and the bloomers and Los Angeles' wealthy would leave, Inyo Kern, Independence, Lone Pine, Bishop and Tom's Place will return to "normal" and free, taxpayer supported, medical care wouldn't be quite so essential anymore Larry.
You, sir, are an ignorant ideologue.
I may be a lot of things Larry but my only sin is that I've lived long enough to watch LA, the flower generation and boomers destroy the tranquility of the Owens Valley and free medical services are one of the instruments of a socialized government that has helped them do it.
So Larry, if you are a LADWP employee, or a displaced hippie or a boomer who has retired where the living is cheap, please pack your bags and go home.
If you get stuck in some remote part of Death, Saline, Eureka, or other valley, you'll pay at least $1000 to get towed out.
That's reality.
Why can't we charge similarly for emergency medical service? It really is much, much more costly to deliver here than in populated areas.
No. A hospital can downsize only to a certain point. Then it ceases to be a hospital.
Nope just those who moved to California or moved to your neck of the woods and stayed because free medical services allowed them the luxury to stay in the boondocks and still receive municipal services
You're only talking about the retired elderly. The situation is far more complicated...as you know.
I can remember what a quiet place the valley was before the LADWP moved in and stole the water.
No you can't. DWP moved in in 1903-5 and began "stealing" (that too is baloney) water in 1913.
Do you know any DWP employees Larry?
Yep.
I can remember when the high desert was a place for men and machines and then the hippies moved in to pursue their leisurely life style.
Wasn't very quiet then was it? Or do you characterize gun fights and rowdy drunkenness as quiet?
Know any aging hippies who can't pay for their own medical care because they played most of their life instead of working?
Yep.
Then low income retirees started showing up in their old Winnebago's to squat on government land when the temps were pleasant because they had a cheap internal medicine source just down the road to take care of their hypertension and painful joints. Know any retirees squatting on government land who are there because of the convenience of a nearby, free medical facility?
You really are an idiot. A good portion of the retirees live in the Alabama Hills and are quite well off. The welfare recipients are mostly young and - often as not - are descendents of long-time valley residents.
Then there was the development of Mammoth and Bishop Creek and the well to do kept right on driving at reckless speeds up 395 because they expected that medical services were available along the whole route. Do you see the cars going 75 mph up and down 395 without a care?
Now you're getting real - except that your class envy is showing. The people who are rushing up to Mammoth to ski are mostly middle-class white folk with a week-end off. And you greatly underestimate the stupid irresponsibility of their driving.
If the hippies and the bloomers and Los Angeles' wealthy would leave, Inyo Kern, Independence, Lone Pine, Bishop and Tom's Place will return to "normal" and free, taxpayer supported, medical care wouldn't be quite so essential anymore Larry.
It seems there's no end to your foolishness. L.A. give up Owens Valley Water? Ha!!! Mining and logging return? HaHa!!! Mammoth close? Hahahahahahahah!!!!!!!!
I may be a lot of things Larry but my only sin is that I've lived long enough to watch LA, the flower generation and boomers destroy the tranquility of the Owens Valley and free medical services are one of the instruments of a socialized government that has helped them do it.
Nope. You're an ideological idiot and a lousy historian as well.
So Larry, if you are a LADWP employee, or a displaced hippie or a boomer who has retired where the living is cheap, please pack your bags and go home.
I'm not any of those things. I own my own home free and clear, built it myself out of cash, took quite a risk doing so since it's architecturally daring, require virtually no medical care (despite being partially crippled), serve as a volunteer director on the local hospital board, and consider this my home.
Can you claim as much?
Yup ...plus family residency in the Bishop area since 1928.
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