A bill of goods

Dear editor:

If you have lived in Hot Springs a while, you probably know that CHI St. Vincent Hot Springs is the largest employer in the county. And the people who work there make the highest average salaries in Garland County.

What would happen to Hot Springs if this hospital failed?

Many of us don’t realize that this almost happened five years ago. The costs of providing medical care to all who came to the hospital were simply outstripping many of those patients’ ability to pay for their care. Insurance was high and if you were out of work, or what they call working poor (people who work, often more than one job, with low pay and no insurance coverage), you had no way of paying the hospital back.

Because of the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) and coupled with austerity measures, St. Vincent survived.

Just imagine what would have happened if the hospital had failed. Drive through some of the towns in south Arkansas if you want to see what towns look like after their major employers pull out.

In November, we are faced with a choice. Republicans tout the tax cuts and economic gain. Let’s see what happens to the money we are supposed to retain from tax cuts once the health insurance we pay goes up, some say as high as 25 percent more. Let’s see what happens to our hospital when it is again faced with people who don’t have insurance because they can’t afford it or choose not to buy it. Let’s see what happens when Medicaid is cut (again) and even more people who can’t get to work or volunteer are cut off the rolls. Let’s see how we feel when this Republican administration starts cutting our Medicare.

We have been fed a bill of goods. In this case, small government is not necessarily better. Medicare is socialized health care. It is nothing to be afraid of. If we vote the people out of office who are siphoning our tax money upward to the wealthiest few, we may have some money left over to care for all those who need it and to pressure the pharmaceutical companies to charge us the same as they are charging people in other countries. None of this is on the agenda of our representatives.

I found this to be true personally. When in Egypt several years ago, I paid the equivalent of $6 for a 10-gram tube of Zovirax, which currently costs $908.81 for 5 grams here. It was at least $100 in the U.S. for a tube back then.

Our Republican state and federal representatives aren’t telling us anything about what the state of health care in our country will be when they have cut services and benefits to the bone. If we are smart, we will elect people who will fight for keeping the health care insurance programs which will benefit all people, control drug costs and help keep our hospitals open. Ann Hair Hot Springs