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The title of Proposition 3 is “Children’s Hospital Bond Act.” It authorizes nearly $1 Billion in bonds to fund the “construction, expansion, remodeling, renovation, furnishing and equipping of children’s hospitals.” I recognize that it’s not popular to vote against the children, so I feel like I am taking an unpopular position on this ballot initiative.
The opponents of this measure outline several reasons why we should be voting down this initiative, including that a good protion of the money will go to “acute general hospitals” rather than striclty children’s hopsitals.
According to the independent analysis by the legislative analyst, 80% of the funds will go to not-for-profit private hospitals such as Children’s Hospital Los Angeles and Lucile Salter Packard Children’s Hospital at Stanford. Just four years ago, we voters approved Proposition 61 which was a $750 million bond for children’s hospitals. A little over half of that money has been distributed to eligible hospitals. Let’s use up that money and account for it before we raise more money for a grant program.
In addition to my dislike for bond measures, here are my reasons why I’m voting no on Proposition 3:
- I think any money awarded to hospitals raised by tax payers should be done through a matching grant. In other words, hospitals who want a crack at that money should be responsible to raise 50% of the money themselves. In other words, no free money.
- Local communities should be responsible for money that would benefit their own hospital.
- The state should be addressing other/more pressing issues with health-care—i.e. access to it. And while some of these hospitals may extend some care to the uninsured, the vast majority of those without health-care will not know how to access resources that would benefit them.
- This initiative is poorly written. If we are going to be spending nearly $2 billion on Children’s hospitals, there should be a better accounting on the front end of where that money would go. How much will each hospital get? What will the hospital use that money for? I don’t want the state to create a grant system where hospitals can then apply for the money. I think it would be wiser for hospitals to draft how they would use the money and let voters see how our money will be used.
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I wondered if the hospital that is treating most of the serious illnesses so well in my part of the state was “private” — it is difficult to tell since they seem to be the place to go for everyone within 100s of miles - because they treat all children regardless of the ability of the family to pay. What part of that process is “private” I wonder. I guess they own the machines they purchase that they use to treat the community’s sick? They are not attached to a big govt institution - so it means they have to struggle for each dime they raise as they are certainly non-profit status -and spend more than they collect from medicare and insurance. So- how is it important that they are “private” when the purpose they serve is very “public”? This is a post from another blog that helped me understand a bit more…
” Posted by: Justine Kinder at September 24, 2008 08:53 AM
Being that even though many of the Childrens hospitals provide care for all, and don’t discriminate, then yes, the money should come from the state. We don’t only serve people who have insurance, and pay their medical bills. We serve and ever growing population on MediCal who are unable to pay for the care of their very sick child. If the money isn’t there to help these people, then the these hospitals will eventually close and there will be no place for these very special kids, with very specific illnesses to go. I work at a Children’s hospital ER, and I would be so afraid to take my children anywhere BUT a child specific hospital. If you ever hear how outside hospitals, and small community hospitals treat some diseases that child specific hospitals specialize in, even something as simple as Asthma, you would think that they didn’t keep up to date on the most recent practices in Pediatric Medicine.
Please don’t put Children’s hospitals in the same categories as private schools, businesses, etc. We do not function those same ways. We see every child under the sun, and treat them all with the same loving care and respect as the next. We serve our local communities and we become a part of those communities.
If you were to walk in to the hospital now, you would see the effect that other closing hospitals and ED’s have had on the Children’s Hospitals as well as other surrounding hospitals. We are over run, full to the max and have people sitting in the ED waiting for beds, that are filled with other sick children. The hospitals are full, we need to make room for them. The kids are sicker than they ever used to be, we need to be able to see them and care for them safely. Many outside public and private are closing their pediatric floors, in the end, where do they go? “