Sales Tax vote this spring crucial to Winslow Memorial Hospital

The May 15th election for a five year renewal of the existing one percent sales tax will be crucial to the financial health of Winslow Memorial Hospital. The hospital has found the one fourth of one percent that it receives from the tax to be the difference between breaking even or suffering a financial loss. In fact, the city could make few better investments for the community than to budget one half of the one percent sales tax revenues for the hospital. This would be an action that could make a huge difference to the standard of health care that would be available for the citizens of Winslow.

During the last 10 years, the hospital would have actually operated at a loss during three of those years and enjoyed a much smaller profit margin during each of the others. The 20-year-old tax was passed for the first time in 1981, but has never been more critical than it is today for the hospital.

Health care costs have been rising more rapidly than most segments of the economy, but hospitals have not shared in the benefits of that growth. In fact, hospitals and doctors have experienced a squeeze by insurance companies eager to cut their expenses. Hospitals are required to offer some services regardless of the patients' ability to pay. As more have joined the ranks of the uninsured, those expenditures by the hospitals have risen.

There is a growing shortage of nurses and other skilled health care professionals. This shortage has forced hospitals not just to increase the salaries it pays these professionals, but to use expensive registry nurses on a regular basis. As a result, Winslow Memorial experienced its only deficit of the past 10 years in 1999 when it showed a loss of $6,225. This figure would have been much worse were it not for the $215,151 it received from the sales tax.

The availability of quality health care is an important ingredient in the life of any community. While medical science has continued to advance remarkably over the years, the availability of that service in many communities has deteriorated rapidly. In much of Arizona, many citizens have seen affordable HMO coverage become just a memory. Prescription drug costs have grown beyond the affordability of many patients.

Because of these and other factors, the renewal of the sales tax provision may determine whether Winslow will continue to have quality health care available for its citizens. It is not inconceivable that this election could determine whether Winslow has a hospital or not in the near future. Certainly, this election will determine whether Winslow Memorial can continue to purchase the expensive modern medical equipment that is necessary to providing top quality care.

Winslow citizens have a history of rising to the occasion and supporting those projects, which are most necessary to offer the quality of life needed to best serve our citizens. Winslow voters have supported the hospital and our school system in times of need. It is vital that they continue to do so at this crucial time.