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A particularly galling irony is that for those fortunate enough to have health-care insurance in the United States today, especially for those under the age of 65, when Medicare becomes available to them, one of the top priorities is to refrain from using their insurance to cover any service that’s very costly. This is because, on an individual level, especially with the ubiquitous HMO model of coverage, the insured pays a deductible before receiving any services, and pays as well at different levels for tests, preventative care and necessary treatments that are not covered by his or her policy. This, of course, in addition to paying the monthly fee for the policy. But on the more global level, there are consequences for the entire benefits group, with rates increasing at double-digit levels as a result of high-cost claims.
This unfortunate fact of American life has presented one of the thorniest problems for the Region One Board of Education as its members have tried to keep cost increases down in the 2009-2010 budget. The region’s health-care plan cost will increase by almost 23 percent, as a result of 17 claims of more than $100,000 each in the last fiscal year. This is an increase that cannot be avoided by negotiation or by switching insurance carriers. It’s a result of the way our broken health-care system is structured. While, as Region One Business Manager Sam Herrick has pointed out, taking care of its sick members (who have usually paid into the system for a long time without needing to put in high-level claims year by year) is what the purpose should be of any insurance group. But those large claims affect the profits of the insurance companies who write the policies, and in the face of the needs of those companies, the needs of health-care consumers become secondary.
As a result, the Region One budget had to be cut in other areas in order to cover the monumental increase in health-care costs, as well as increases in Pupil Services, which encompasses the special education department, and a small increase in regional administration. The board found areas to cut, including freshman basketball and an entire maintenance position at Housatonic Valley Regional High School. For now, the increase in next year’s budget has been addressed, though imperfectly. The loss of a maintenance position is a hard one, both because of the pain any layoff means for the individuals affected, and because the aging plant at Housy needs attention to function well and to provide a good environment in which students can think and learn.
On the health-care front, however: What if there are more high claims in this fiscal year? Should those Region One-covered colleagues who become ill be blamed for the next year’s increases as a result? Doesn’t that seem inhumane? Which is exactly what the insurance system for medical benefits is now: inhumane.
Another irony in light of the fact that the only real reason to have a health-care system at all is to help and support humans in our quest toward living healthy lives, and remaining healthy for as long as possible during our lifetimes.
Town meeting SSRRA vote in Salisbury
Salisbury will vote on the creation of a Salisbury-Sharon Resource Recovery Authority (SSRRA) at a special town meeting on Friday, April 3, at Town Hall. While decisions will also be made at the meeting on a resolution concerning the Water Pollution Control Authority, the question of the formation of the SSRRA is the one that will surely bear the most discussion, as the transfer station issue has over the past months and years while the work toward a new station site for the towns of Sharon and Salisbury has moved the project forward.
There has been long planning to bring the towns to this point. Several committees worked to evaluate the best site, and the best approach to waste disposal and recycling going into the future, and their work led to the purchase of the Luke-Fitting property on Route 44 near the New York state line. Questions raised in the many open meetings on the proposed structure of the SSRRA, which will manage the transfer station with equal representation from each town, have been useful in analyzing the best approach for the towns to take now. If there are problems that arise as time goes on, the ordinance can be modified if necessary.
Objections to the first members of the SSRRA being the selectmen of the towns of Salisbury and Sharon are based in a belief that there is some power grab at play. But these are largely caretaker positions. Really, if the selectmen desired more power than they already have, couldn’t they find an easier path than that of managing the building and initial operations of the transfer station? By the time the station is in operation, there will have been the opportunity to vote out at least two of the selectmen if the town is unhappy with their service. And at least one of the selectmen has indicated his intention to resign from the SSRRA as quickly as possible.
This newspaper favors the approval of the formation of the SSRRA at Friday night’s town meeting.
© Copyright 2009 by TCExtra.com
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