With all the hub-bub about “Obamacare” and the new-found love of Republicans for balanced budgets after eight years of George W. Bush blow-outs, one wonders what Gov. Robert F. McDonnell is doing.
When it comes to health care, the Republican governor seems to have a deaf ear on medical care for the poor.
Consider that McDonnell is getting a big time rep as being a budget balancer by supposedly turning a deficit of $1.8 billion into a surplus of more than $400 million. Of he did so through some accounting tricks that would have gotten the CEO of a private firm in trouble, such as delaying scheduled payments on state employee pensions.
McDonnell also has achieved his supposed budget goals on the eyes of the poor. He cut $764,000 from Medicaid funds intended to help the needy get routine eye exams from optometrists. That has the Virginia Optometric Association up in arms since their doctors handle about 70 percent of all eye exams in the state.
The message seems to be that if you are poor, then you can just as well go blind. The state won’t help you.
But then, McDonnell doesn’t seem to cotton much to the needy. Take a look at the composition of his “Virginia Health Reform Initiative Advisory Council” which is supposed to help him deal with such features of Obamacare as setting up exchanges to help people meet their requirement to buy health insurance and also get unspent stimulus money available to help make medical records electronic.
McDonnell has appointed 24 people to the council. They include Managed Care executives,lawyers, physicians, a business school official, politicians, and, strangely, the COO of a pest control firm.
Noticeably absent from his council are people representing the poor, the elderly, labor unions or others who may not be in the business elite in crowd.
Of course, John A. Luke, chairman and CEO of MeadWestvaco, its headquarters newly relocated to Richmond, is on the council. But the paper and packaging firm has a dotty relationship with labor unions and one wonders how much Luke will recommend short-changing workers when it comes to health care. One must consider the bottom line.
The upshot is that McDonnell sees health reform as what is healthy and good for Managed Care. Actual patients can go wanting, especially if they are poor or elderly.
Peter Galuszka
