Fomer Mayor Jack Ford on water and a few things I disagree with...

This week's column in the Sojourner's Truth by Jack Ford has some interesting information and a few things I disagree with. You can read it in full here, the former Mayor starts out on the Berkey water issue but that's not what I'm going to focus on. It is these two parts:

I thought that the Democratic road show in Toledo protesting Blackwell’s sale of the turnpike was undermined by the next day’s story that the Indiana governor was cashing $500,000 each day in interest payments from the $3.8 billion sale of their road. You can fix a lot of problems with an extra half a million a day coming into your state coffers.

On the other hand, Blackwell’s plan on health care for the uninsured is intriguing. This will resound with a lot of groups from business leaders to the uninsured. Blackwell is quickly becoming the guy with ideas while Strickland so far has just coasted. But, it looks as if he is sledding uphill with The Blade. In his front page picture with Republican mastermind Karl Rove last week, Blackwell has his back turned and The Blade published a photo very reminiscent of the classic Richard Nixon/Sammy Davis Jr. “hug.”

I strongly disagree with the sale of the Turnpike, nor do I believe no matter how much the State coffers might benefit that the Turnpike should even be for sale. It is supposed to have already been bought and paid for by the tax payers of this state and if the law was being followed? Would not even be a toll road anymore. Even though the Turnpike has stated the majority of those who drive it are not Ohio residents it creates another unwelcoming thing about Ohio. Especially if Lucas County gets the increase in the motel/hotel tax to try to fund the arena project it will make us not only one of the highest tax rates for putting heads in beds but for getting those heads to us.

I understand that Jack Ford has always been a strong supporter of providing health care to all local residents and residents of the State. He may be correct that some business owners will like Blackwell's plan for health care however, if the same Ohioans currently can't afford health care how they are going to come up with the money isn't something Blackwell's plan addresses. Smart Business people should realize, creating a situation where Ohioans have even less to spend is not a win/win situation for them.

Directly from Blackwell's website on his "Health Care for the Twenty First Century":

Insuring the Uninsured

Blackwell proposes the “Buckeye Health Plan” to provide health insurance coverage to currently uninsured Ohioans. The program would require all Ohioans to have some form of health insurance: individually, directly or indirectly through their employer or through a new marketplace sponsored by the State of Ohio for the uninsured – the Buckeye Health Connection.

The Buckeye Health Connection would match uninsured individuals with private health insurance coverage and facilitate those relationships as described below.

The insurance coverage offered through the Buckeye Health Connection would be paid for through individual contributions, employer contributions, Medicaid contributions or any combination of these.

The Buckeye Health Connection will be a facilitator of health insurance coverage and not replace existing relationships. The program will ask all Ohioans to participate in their own health care as a matter of personal responsibility.

The majority of people right now who don't have health insurance are not doing so because they are irresponsible, it's because they cannot afford it. Realistically how many people would decide to not be able to receive preventive health care? The majority of people I know that don't have health insurance would love to be able to afford health care, however their employers either don't provide it or provide it at such a high cost they can't afford it. In a fantasy world it would be great to believe that health insurance costs would magically decrease and I realize that in Massachusetts they are also claiming that this will reduce insurance costs however, that has not yet happened.

Even Standard and Poor's has concerns about the Massachusett's plan:

Our greatest concern is that the bill will not effectively curb the overall cost of covering the uninsured. If the funding for H. 4850 is insufficient to cover the cost of the uninsured, any additional financial burden on providers could damage their profitability, thereby potentially affecting credit quality.

They also state:

Standard & Poor's Ratings Services believes that a new Massachusetts law that aims to provide health care coverage for all of its residents could have a neutral to positive credit effect on certain of the commonwealth's hospitals and health systems depending on how the law is implemented. We also believe, however, that the law in its entirety would not likely be viable in other states.

I realize it's a silly suggestion, but shouldn't we see if this actually works before Ohio joins in?