Health Levy

[nota]

As someone who has used MAST (for my husband)-I believe that the costs do climb and we need to pay the price as long as there is oversight.

MAST is great. I don't know that it could be done cheaper. And certainly not better.

If we are paying a bit more, and some are unable to pay, it is the price of taking care of those less fortunate.

Luckily we have insurance and we paid only about half of it.

k

[KCPowercat]

nota...what's up with the 60% no vote north of the river?  You aren't spreading your message very well

[KCMax]

Can't they enroll in a plan offered by Blue Cross Blue Shield?   

Its not like these people are getting great health service for free. All the hospital will be doing is stabilizing them in emergency situations, and then kicking them out. That's all they're required to do. Its not like they're getting free health insurance.

[dangerboy]

Can't they enroll in a plan offered by Blue Cross Blue Shield?

Not if they don't have a few hundred extra dollars a month to buy their own insurance.  I make a decent living but would have trouble paying all my all of my own insurance if I didn't have it through work.  Lots of other people work for small businesses that offer little or no health insurance.

[tat2kc]

and only the hospitals do the stabilization thing. The other clinics, like Swope and the KC free health clinic offer preventative care and ongoing care for those with chronic health issues.  They are safety net clinics designed to help people avoid emergency issues.  This levy is a good investment for the city

[beautyfromashes]

I don't understand why 65% of this money is going to one hospital.  How come Truman can't cover itself like all the others?  Personally, I'm just tired of my property tax going up every single time there's an election.  Sure, everyone is saying, "Well, it's on $56 or a few hundred".  You're bleeding me to death.  People need to take some personal responsibility.  I guess it's too late now!

[KCPowercat]

Truman takes care of all the uninsured/underinsured patients.....open to the metro although somebody earlier stated 80% are KCMO residents that use the hospital.

[dangerboy]

I don't understand why 65% of this money is going to one hospital.  How come Truman can't cover itself like all the others?  Personally, I'm just tired of my property tax going up every single time there's an election.  Sure, everyone is saying, "Well, it's on $56 or a few hundred".  You're bleeding me to death.  People need to take some personal responsibility.  I guess it's too late now!

]

Because Truman is the only publicly-funded hospital in KCMO.  The money actually goes to two hospitals, as Truman has facilities on Hospital Hill and near Lakewood. 

Do you know how the other hospitals are covering themselves?  They do it by raising their rates on people that have insurance.  Which do you prefer?  Slightly higher property taxes or significantly higher health insurance premiums?

[beautyfromashes]

  Which do you prefer?  Slightly higher property taxes or significantly higher health insurance premiums?

So, by passing this levy, health insurance premiums aren't going to go up?  Private hospitals give the same care as Truman even though some patients don't have insurances and can't afford it.  If the goal was to keep insurance premiums from going up then the levy should be given to all the hospitals to cover uninsured or underinsured patients, right?  How does Truman being a public hospital effect anything?  They take my insurance just the same as St. Luke's and KU Med and, that I know of, none of these hospitals turn people away.  Costs are the same at the hospitals to my insurance.  I'm not really buying the argument.

[scooterj]

I never had a chance to vote but I would have voted against this plan.   Not because I don't want to give money to Truman, it's a great asset, I just wanted a better plan that didn't seem so hastily thrown-together.   I just don't want to see so many small but sloppy taxes passed that when something major comes along that's really deserving of a tax, we're all so overtaxed that it can't pass.

[ShowME]

nota...what's up with the 60% no vote north of the river?  You aren't spreading your message very well [quote][/quote]


Obviously 60% or more of Northlanders could care less about Truman Med.    Everyone's health insurance claims are going to skyrocket regardless.  Now KCMO residents get hit with yet another tax.

[tat2kc]

Truman is a publicly owned hospital. The other hospitals in the area are owned by private entities, primarily for profit companies.  It provides more indigent care than any other medical center around.  The funds to operate a city owned hospital are borne by the citizens of the city.  Do you really think that the percentage of uninsured  is the same at suburban hosptials owned by for profit companies? The health levy also supports MAST, and other health care centers.  When the suburbs and other cities provide the level of basic health care that KC provides, then the cost to KCMO residents will go down.  Its apparent that other cities in the metro area are not willing to provide safety net health care to their citizens, until there is an emergency.  I'm, proud to live in a city where basic health care is valued for all its citizens.  I think its unfortunate that we can't provide more, and that other communites are not stepping up to the plate to care for their own people.  But hey, why should they? KCMO will do it for them.

[dangerboy]

Hastily thrown together???  This plan was in the works for a year or more.  The exact perctanges weren't finalized  until the end, but there was nothing hasty about it.

The Northland always complains that too much of their money goes to support stuff south of the river, yet almost every time they have an opportunity to correct the situation they vote against it.

This is what happened with the sales tax for the Police Department.  Northlanders complained for years that they didn't get enough police service, only to vote against the proposal to give them a second precinct building, a hundred news officers, and the city's Police Academy.  But thanks to the votes of southlanders, KC North is getting the new police buildings anyway.

[Amanda]

Thanks, dangerboy...I can tell you first hand that it was anything but hastily thrown together.

In my opinion, the proposal was more clear and well organized than the arena, scooterj  .

We knew well in advance that it was going to sink in the Northland and that's why we focused our GOTV efforts south of the river.

A huge thanks to everyone who supported it!!!

[beautyfromashes]

Someone tell me why Children's Mercy, St. Luke's, KUMed and all the other private hospitals can turn a profit but Truman needs millions of dollars in public subsidies?

[KCMax]

I think those other are privately owned - and I'm not sure KU Med is turning a profit - they've been implementing a ton of cost cutting measures lately.

Truman is publicly owned, so of course there's going to be public subsidies! The whole thing is publicly subsidized!

[GRID]

No way Truman Lakewood is 80% KCMO, Truman Hospital Hill maybe, but  not Lakewood.  That is the hospital for low income people in all of Jackson County including large cities like Independence and Lee's Summit.

This is just one more example of how KCMO gets hammered when it comes to regional issues.

[scooterj]

Thanks, dangerboy...I can tell you first hand that it was anything but hastily thrown together.

In my opinion, the proposal was more clear and well organized than the arena, scooterj  .

We knew well in advance that it was going to sink in the Northland and that's why we focused our GOTV efforts south of the river.

A huge thanks to everyone who supported it!!!

To me it seemed hastily thrown together because there was virtually no mention of it anywhere in the media until 2 weeks before the election.   And the ballot language seemed vague and seemed to be doing nothing more than replacing money that our existing taxes were supposed to be sending to Truman in the first place.   What I read gave me no confidence that the same thing wouldn't happen again.

It has nothing to do with me personally as my property taxes are under $50 a year since I rent and drive a clunker, so my personal tax increase won't even be noticed.    I just prefer that tax increases do something more effective and beneficial than simply covering up losses due to what appears to have been mismanagement of previous taxes.

[troostwood]

Truman is Kansas City's hospital of last resort. It handles the vast majority of the city's indigent.

The city's indigent do not pay for their services. They have no insurance to pay for their services. The government pays for some of the services, but not all. It's is not a profitable enterprise. Therefore, hospitals that can avoid it, generally do.

That's why Truman Hospital needs the money. The cost of healthcare has gone up, but the amount of money they have received to provide that healthcare has been static for the last few years. Therefore, the public subsidy must go up.

As a KCMO voter, I almost didn't go to the polls. I was ambivalent at first -- my property tax bill (something I'm not used to) has gone up so much that the bank is requiring $100 extra a month from me. That hurts, as I'm not a rich man.  (Plus, I want to keep the tinder dry for the future regional transportation tax.) But I was talking to my neighbor that afternoon, around 5:30 p.m., my neighbor who has 5 kids and no health insurance, and I thought, man, I would pay the extra $50 a year or whatever so that they can get decent services. So I voted for it. I think this kind of public subsidy helps a lot of hard working families that can't afford health insurance. That will improve the entire city's quality of life -- probably more so than transportation, honestly.

Politically, it did seem that the GOTV effort on the health levy was somehow muted -- maybe because it was such a otherwise boring ballot -- hard to catch the fever when the only issue is a needed, but completely unglamorous, health levy issue.

It would be interesting to hear from someone from the Northland explain the 60 percent in opposition, other than the obvious observation that they dont' see how they would benefit from it.

[KCMax]

To me it seemed hastily thrown together because there was virtually no mention of it anywhere in the media until 2 weeks before the election.

Well, there have been signs up for over a month now, and they discussed it on "Ruckus" about three weeks ago. Plus its a non-Presidential, non-Congressional election, so its going to get less pub than those elections. And there was no organized opposition group to it. So its understandable that there wasn' t much pub on it. It wasn't hasily thrown together, there just wasn't much publicity over it.