U.S. Sen. Ken Salazar talks health care at Centennial Hall
Friday, August 24, 2007
Coming Sunday
U.S. Sen. Ken Salazar also visited Steamboat Springs to speak at the Colorado Water Congress' 2007 summer convention, held at the Sheraton Steamboat Resort. Read about the event, which featured water experts speaking about topics including climate change, water supply and future water policy, in Sunday's Steamboat Pilot & Today.
Steamboat Springs — The statistic made U.S. Sen. Ken Salazar's eyes open wide in surprise.
"Our emergency room visits have increased 40 percent in the past year," Bob Omer, chief executive officer of Pioneers Medical Center in Meeker, told the senator Thursday at a public meeting that drew several elected officials and members of the public to Centennial Hall. Salazar, a Democrat from the San Luis Valley, is touring Colorado during Congress' August recess.
Omer credited the increase in hospitalizations to exploding oil and natural gas development in Western Colorado. Omer said energy development is bringing so many people to his hospital - often traveling long distances from well sites - that he plans to open a clinic to serve the Rifle and Parachute area next month.
"That's an incredible number," Salazar said about the 40 percent figure. "You have an emergency situation in Rio Blanco County."
Salazar said cries for health care reform are increasingly heard in Washington, D.C.
"The drumbeat has become so loud about how bad our health care system is in America, that we will start to see more action in Congress," Salazar said. "It is a crisis, in my view, that is crippling families and businesses in our state and our country. : We are on the verge of getting through Congress legislation that would significantly expand children's health care programs."
Salazar said the legislation would use revenue from a tobacco tax to fund health care for 10 million children, including 200,000 in Colorado, where he said a total of 800,000 people are currently without health care coverage.
On Friday in Denver, the senator will meet with Gov. Bill Ritter's 2008 Commission, which is working on widespread health care proposals for the 2008 session of the state Legislature.
Karl Gills, chief executive officer of Yampa Valley Medical Center, expressed concerns to Salazar that as the baby boomer generation ages, a decreasing workforce could be overwhelmed in the health care industry.
"We have a significant shortage of health care workers in our society," Gills said.
Farming families
Marsha Daughenbaugh of the Community Agriculture Alliance spoke about a different kind of shortage: disappearing ranchlands.
Rising land prices and increasing taxes, especially taxes on lands inherited by families of deceased agricultural landowners, are causing increased sales of ranchlands, Daughenbaugh said.
Salazar said he and U.S. Sen. Pat Roberts, R-Kan., recently announced the Family Farm and Ranch Act of 2007, which would exempt farmers and ranchers from estate taxes to preserve future generations of family farming.
"I have long sought a permanent repeal of the estate tax, and I continue to support permanent repeal for those affected by this unfair tax," Sen. Roberts said in an Aug. 13 statement. "As farms are passed down among the generations, estate taxes have made it increasingly harder to keep the operation in the family. : This legislation will go a long way to keep our young people farming into the future, preserving our rural way of life and our rural communities."
Roberts is a member of the Senate Committee on Finance and the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry.
Salazar said he is optimistic about the success of the bill, which has not yet begun the legislative process.
"I think we have a good shot at it," he said.
Congress reconvenes Sept. 4.
- To reach Mike Lawrence, call 871-4203
or e-mail mlawrence@steamboatpilot.com
Comments
Brian Smith 5 years, 9 months ago
Gills said "We have a significant shortage of health care workers in our society," Maybe the healthcare industry should think about paying professional staff such as nurses, X-Ray Techs, etc. better wages (especially in Ski Towns). Why would a young person go into healthcare, when they can go to school the same amount of time for another profession and make more money?
Slapper 5 years, 9 months ago
if ever there was meaningful legislation introduced in respect to affordable health care this guy in the end will side with the corporations.
spukomy 5 years, 9 months ago
Why do tobacco users have to pay for other peoples chilldren's health care?
Matthew Stoddard 5 years, 9 months ago
Because smokers won't band together and say "Enough." Plus, the more they raise taxes for these things, the less people are smoking. There goes their funding source.
Kinda how buying a hybrid vehicle wastes less gas...and where to roads get a vast majority of their funding? Gas taxes.
spukomy 5 years, 9 months ago
Right again, kielbasa, smokers should strongly voice their opinion. Imagine if this tax were to be applied to fuel. We'd see lots of opposing outcry. Put the tax on, say, Raider's fans and we'd have cheering.
It's a smart political move. Smokers are often shunned in public. Easy target. They've had all public places, even some outdoors, taken away slowly. And now people gripe about them smoking on the sidewalk.
Maybe if there was a law saying parents must provide health care for their children, or face consequences, this tax could be avoided.
sarakg 5 years, 9 months ago
What about the future taxpayers (children) who will be covering your lung cancer once you're on Medicare? I know that the health industry needs a major revolution, but it's your decision to smoke, not the decision of future taxpayers, nor even those who pay for those people who still refuse to stop smoking, yet they are the ones who will be held financially responsible for your decision to jeopardize your health and life.
spukomy 5 years, 9 months ago
sara, This isn't about future taxpayers. Nor is it about the right to "refuse" to stop smoking. Everyone knows the danger. Some choose to accept it. It's still legal.
This is about legislature drawn against a select group of consumers. And they don't even call it a "sin tax".
Say I have a strong dislike for green peppers. I band together with many who feel the same. Next thing, there's a movement against green peppers. Congress passes the bill that taxes everything to do with these peppers. Buy them at a store or restraunt and you pay a newly developed tax that gets passed down to........parents who haven't provided health care for their children.
So what does smoking, snuff, and chewing tobacco have to do with other people's children and the health care they receive? Same as green peppers.
The care is not also for adults. Not every child has been exposed to the risks of second-hand smoke. This isn't a tobacco related issue.
What if, starting right now, tobacco was no longer on the planet. No more smoking, chewing and such. There goes all that tax money. Who is going to pay for the children now?
Get rid of the tobacco users, and get rid of your funding.
Or find the money to "save" these children without holding a specific consumer group hostage.
jack legrice 5 years, 9 months ago
Before you have a child make sure you can afford one. Stop the brutal reproducing!! Be a responsible parent. Don't ask others to raise your children. And don't ask me to help you buy a house.
agentofchange 5 years, 9 months ago
Can you say "Socialism" ?? Wake up people.
Nanny, Nanny, please take care of me, please Nanny. What has happened to LIBERTY. Think about it. What has happened to PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY ??
sarakg 5 years, 9 months ago
Are green peppers proven to be carcinogenic? If you do not want to pay the voluntary tax on cigarettes (remember, you elected those people, and you choose to buy those things every day, or twice a week, or how ever much you smoke), stop buying cigarettes. It's actually pretty simple...stop making the personal decision to pay that voluntary tax, or lobby the system to make that your priority. I'm sure Morrison Tobacco would be right there with you.
And I can assure you, working for a doctor, that tobacco is actually costing the public much more than the kids. Green peppers do not. I have yet to see an eight year old with a trach tube that refuses to quit smoking, and charges biweekly lifetime visits to Medicare (which pays next to nothing to the doctor, by the way, causing them to jack up prices on other private and commercial insurance contracts to cover costs). Neither do public insurances such as CHP+ or Medicaid. Nor do I see those kids or know their names like I do our tobacco patients. Perhaps you should think of the tax as a savings account? You pay in now, so we can take care of you later.
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