Without Northside, all lose

Without Northside, all lose

EDITOR:

What do we have to lose? Plenty, if Northside Hospital closes. It would be another deep blow to the Mahoning Valley, not just in jobs lost but in the availability of affordable choices of health care in the Valley. Unlike many of the closings and downsizing in the community, this is preventable. If the community, doctors and employees all work together there will continue to be a choice in the Valley.

It is a scary scenario to think of what may happen to the quality of indigent care in this area if there is only one hospital when two hospitals cannot handle it now.

Our state and federal officials need to step in to increase the ever falling reimbursements for services provided. How fair is it to pay the institutions in this area less based on the cost of living? We have suffered for not just years, but decades because of constant company closings. At the same time our area has been ignored by politicians and passed over for projects that would have improved our position. They will give greedy, mismanaged corporation bailouts and allow a vital service to their constituents to collapse.

One of my biggest fears is the loss of young, qualified doctors leaving the Valley. We need them to sustain future health care. How can we expect them to remain in or be attracted to this area when there is only one hospital that can dictate to them with no alternative? Also, why would a qualified physician or specialist remain in an area where they are reimbursed less for their services than in a more affluent area like Columbus? Again, the hardworking people of the Mahoning Valley will lose out.

As with the rest of the country, the staff will take the reductions in wages and benefits to survive. All of in the Mahoning Valley can insure the future of our local health care that has been serving us for over 100 years. Tell your doctors you want to go to Northside. Contact your politicians and tell them it is about time they put the basic welfare of their constituents above their PAC money. What we do not need are media personalities telling people not to come to Northside. It still has the caring staff and excellent physicians it always did.

I do not work for Northside Hospital, but I work at it. What I have to lose is minute compared to the Valley in regard to quality health care now and in the future.

ANN DITULLIO

Youngstown

Cover the uninsured

EDITOR:

Currently, there are 46 million Americans, including more than 9 million children, who are living without health insurance. In Ohio alone, 11 percent of the population does not have health insurance; this number is expected to increase as the economy worsens, and more and more Americans lose their jobs and their health benefits.

Minor illnesses can become major ones when health care is delayed or not obtained due to a lack of health insurance coverage. Every day many patients are forced to gamble with their health because they do not have insurance to cover the cost of a doctor’s visit, needed prescriptions or hospital care.

Even those fortunate enough to have health insurance are struggling. Skyrocketing health care premiums are forcing hard-working American families to choose between paying for groceries or paying their health insurance. The cost to employers of providing health insurance also increases every year, so it comes as no surprise that more and more businesses are dropping health coverage because they simply cannot afford to offer it any longer.

With three hospitals in Mahoning and Trumbull counties — St. Elizabeth, St. Joseph and St. Elizabeth Boardman Health Centers — HMHP provides a safety net in the region for those residents who cannot afford health care. Our mission calls for us to provide care for all, regardless of ability to pay, and we are pleased that we have been able to meet that need. However, our charity care has almost doubled over the past five years, mostly due to local economic conditions.

Solving the health care crisis takes all of us — consumers, doctors, insurers, employers and government. Additional information is available by visiting www.covertheuninsured.org.

ROBERT SHRODER, president and CEO

Humility of Mary Health Partners

Youngstown

Farm Bureau is protecting agriculture, not alcohol

EDITOR:

We were disappointed to read your caption to a recent letter to the editor objecting to a farming operation in Milton Township, “Do area farmers support neighborhood wineries?” The caption mischaracterizes the Ohio Farm Bureau’s position in the case of a winery currently operating in Milton Township.

To be accurate, your caption should have read, “Do area farmers support the right to farm?” This is what the winery case is about, and this is what the Ohio Farm Bureau exists to protect.

The writers refer to the winery as a “bar.” It is not a bar, but an operation that makes and sells wine. The Ohio legislature determined more than 70 years ago that every Ohioan has a “right to farm” unless they are within the limits of an incorporated city or village. That right is codified in Ohio Revised Code Section 519.21, which expressly rejects the contention that a township can zone a farming operation out of existence. Viticulture, or wine making, is expressly recognized as an agricultural activity in Ohio law, and is no different from a farming operation that raises hogs, cattle or grain.

Efforts by zoning officials to restrict or eliminate agricultural activities is nothing new in Ohio and such efforts inevitably occur where residences and agricultural operations are in close proximity, such as we have in Milton Township.

Because of this, the Ohio Farm Bureau has a strong “good neighbor” policy that urges its members to conduct farming operations in a way that reduces the adverse impact on residential neighbors. Those efforts are occasionally insufficient to satisfy a residential landowner whose true agenda is to force the closure of a farming operation. In that event, the solution is not to deprive a farmer of his livelihood, as your writers suggests. In such cases, the Ohio Farm Bureau will always protect the private property rights of our membership, just as we are doing in Milton Township.

DAVID KENREICH, president

Mahoning County Farm Bureau

DAVID S. PENNINGTON, assistant director of agricultural law information

Ohio Farm Bureau Federation, Inc.

Columbus