http://www.palmbeachpost.com/opinion/conte...0621letterfile.htmlReasons abound to vote no on St. Lucie 'trauma tax'
Thursday, June 21, 2007
Reasons abound to vote no on St. Lucie 'trauma tax' Here are reasons to vote no on the trauma tax referendum and tens of millions of dollars that Lawnwood Hospital is seeking from county taxpayers ("Trauma tax sought for Lawnwood team," Sunday).
Lawnwood is owned by Hospital Corporation of America, the world's largest for-profit health-care provider, with 280 hospitals and/or surgery centers and 134,000 employees. Revenues are $25 billion annually, and profit is $1 billion-plus. It has been fined $1.7 billion for Medicare and Medicaid fraud and paid its top five executives more than $29 million cash and stock in a single year.
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Lawnwood and St. Lucie Medical Center, HCA-owned, had profits of $28 million in 2006. Why should St. Lucie County taxpayers subsidize, to the tune of $7.2 million, a hospital and company capable of such numbers? Only St. Lucie County residents will pay this tax, although the center would serve Martin and Okeechobee counties also. The doctors will have private practices and work in emergency rooms, generating additional millions of dollars for themselves and Lawnwood.
There is a correlation between patient volume, more than 650 per year, with lowered mortality and length of stay. In 2006, St. Lucie County, Martin and Okeechobee counties sent far fewer 82 trauma patients to Holmes Regional Treatment Center in Melbourne and St. Mary's Medical Center in West Palm Beach, 17 minutes away by helicopter. This raises the question about timeliness of need.
Lawnwood is negotiating with the doctors, yet the hospital wants the St. Lucie County Fire Board to be the contracting agency. This responsibility and liability should not be transferred to the county. Two of five county commissioners voted against holding this referendum, as many questions remain unanswered about integrity of the process and the question remains: Has this been properly scrutinized?
Lawnwood could have asked for this election in November, instead choosing to pay for a special election in the middle of summer and with less than 60 days for the electorate to be educated on all sides of the issue. More time is needed to put all of this in perspective and Lawnwood can reapply.
CRAIG MUNDT
Fort Pierce
Editor's note: The referendum is Tuesday; early voting began June 11 and continues through Saturday.
