Healthy priorities

OUR OPINION
Published: May 14, 2008

Our health care system is not perfect. It relies on insurance to keep it running smoothly, and unfortunately, many people are uninsured or underinsured.

So, places like the Greater Prince William Community Health Center step in. They provide health care for those who have trouble getting it — the working poor.

The center has been operating for the last 14 months, mostly with money provided by the county.

But because of the tight budget year, the county has cut off funds to the center, leading it to cut hours and limit services in order to stay open.

The county also did not include money for the center in its budget because it was concerned that it had not yet received a federal designation as a “federally qualified health center.” But it is is expected to receive that by September 1. That will provide some money and grants are also a possibility, but being forsaken by the county is a sharp blow. If the center doesn’t find some funds to tide it over until
September, it may have to close this summer.

We are disappointed in the county.

Illegal immigrants, illegal immigrants, illegal immigrants. That is all the talk in Prince William County.

The county did everything it could to make sure it was able to take care of the “scourge” of illegal immigrants in our area, but it couldn’t come up with $450,000 to keep this health operation running.

A member of the center’s board of directors suspects that the funding cut has something to do with those who are served — about half of the patients are Hispanic and they are not asked their
immigration status.

We don’t know if that is true and we would like to assume that the county would not remove the health care carrot as a way to discourage illegal immigrants; life and death should not be a negotiating tool in that battle.

But regardless of the motivations, the county was not able to muster up a meager amount of money to ensure the continued health of more than 2,000 of its residents. This is a sad comment on the county’s priorities.

We hope the center is able to receive funding from other areas and keep its doors open. In our system of health care, many rely on the goodwill of programs such as the Greater Prince William
Community Health Center.

Unfortunately, they can’t rely on the goodwill of their local government.