chutzpah noun(Yiddish) unbelievable gall; insolence; audacity [syn: chutzpa]
Senator Shan Tsutsui wrote a "lecture" in the Viewpoint Section of the MN today about dialogue and compromise being the keys to a successful future for Maui. Now that takes chutzpah! Sissy Shan, hid behind the skirts of Senator Roz Baker and didn't engage in any dialogue about the hospital situation on Maui. Malulani Hospital, the proposed second hospital for Maui, did indeed have widespread community support. Weren't you listening, Shan?
The fact is we have a second class hospital that hasn't had an increase(ok, it got a net one bed increase with the new addition)in beds in years despite a rapidly increasing population and 50,000 visitors on island each day. Heart attack, preemie baby, any serious problem and its on an airplane for us.
This is about money--the hospitals in Honolulu get the benefit of the cash cow hospital on Maui while also getting the sickiest patients with the highest insurance reimbursement. Abolishing the CON(Certificate of Need) would mean real competition which will produce real medical care. Status quo is sick, Shan. Fair question--why would these Senators not support Maui's need? One look at the contributors list and you'll know. The vast majority are from Oahu. In fact, for Roz Baker, the local contributors are a little more than a dozen people. Compromised?
Our masquerading Senators also speak in reverent tones about depriving people in central Maui of their hospital by turning Maui Memorial's antiquated building into a quality long term care facility. They advocate for a long term care facility in Lahaina--which would put Maui's elderly and infirmed far away from their families. Hobson's choice?
Ironically, today Roz Baker is presenting a demonstration of an inflatable hospital--in Lahaina because it would be further political suicide to do it on the South shore!
Shan chooses to use an overwrought cliche "..my way or the highway attitude is not productive"--yet this is exactly what the senatorial triumvirate that is supposed to represent Maui engaged in. No dialogue...and now chutzpah.
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Speaking of triumvirates--those little monkeys--Maui Tomorrrow aka The Dirty Dozen, Sierra Club(same players, different club)and the Kahului Harbor Coalition(both of them) seem to be rolling in dough these days. If they were truly pure of heart, I would expect that they would reveal who their contributors are to this holy war against the Superferry. They have raised sanctimony to an artform. Hear some people are snooping around about those finances.........
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3 comments:
here's my question - if these senators represent Maui why is it that most of their donations come from Oahu? Isn't that a conflict of interest? Wouldn't a senator who truly had Maui/neighbor island interests at heart refuse donations from Oahu...that would really shine through for me
Response to Viewpoint Shan S. Tsutsui
Sunday, September 30, 2007
http://www.mauinews.com/letters/2007/9/30/02shan0930.html
Senator Shan Tsutsui needs to spend some time talking to the people of Maui. He states in his viewpoint of September 30th that the proposed Malulani hospital failed to gain widespread community support. I guess that is true, senator, if you look at the community of Oahu. That is the community that didn’t support it.
Apparently you are the one who isn’t listening. Did you miss the part where the Maui CON (Certificate of Need) voted in favor of Malulani? It was the two Oahu CON boards who voted against it.
According to the Maui News Online Poll Results from October 8, 2004, 85.9% of respondents voted overwhelmingly in favor of an alternative or co-existing hospital.
Our three Maui senators didn’t support Malulani and did nothing to help us.
Oddly enough, AIHM (Association for Improved Healthcare on Maui) has over three thousand members who do support Malulani and a West Side hospital. AIHM has many members who actually work at Maui Memorial and want a better hospital for their families and themselves.
PUSSH (People United to Support Superior Healthcare) has a huge membership.
Then there is Dr. Kwon’s group of Malulani supporters which, by the way, counted 85% of our Maui doctors in their membership.
Why is it that our three Maui senators, Baker, Tsutsui and English, have decided that they know more than the doctors about what we need in the way of healthcare on Maui? Are they just part of the huge bureaucracy of Oahu that is using the CON (Certificate of Need) to make sure that our Maui patients, our medical dollars, and our high paying hospital jobs go to Oahu?
Senator Tsutsui, who is it you represent, anyway? Oahu? HGEA? (Hawaiian Government Workers Association). HAH? (Healthcare Association of Hawaii) HHSC? (Hawaiian Hospital Systems Corporation).
Were you not elected by our wonderful Maui people? Then why won’t you protect their very lives? Maui Memorial is a building – a decrepit old building that can no longer do the job it needs to do. It will still be used, for services that are less of a physical strain on the building. The people who work there will not lose their jobs. They will make more money working for a private system. Why do you want our tax dollars to support something that we can get free through private funds?
The Maui Health Care Initiative Task Force has been given an impossible task so that our three senators can take no action this coming legislative year. You can just hide behind the skirts of these people who you are using as pawns. You can just point to them and say that you must wait until they come up with something. This way, when you take no action in 2008, you can still hope to get voted back into office.
HAH has banded the Oahu hospitals together to stop us from having private hospitals of our own. They want our medical dollars. Senator, you need to save the lives of the people who voted for you. Hopefully they won’t make the same mistake in 2010. It is all about money, Senator. Not our lives. Not our health. It is about the money that the large Oahu hospitals are getting from our Maui patients.
AIHM will be watching. AIHM will be fighting for the people of Maui. And AIHM will be reporting loudly what our three senators are doing, or in this case, not doing, this legislative session. No compromise
Jan Shields RN
www.AIHM-Maui.org
Show us the money!
As non-profits, tax deductible 501C3 organizations, there are certain activities permitted. It seems that Maui Tomorrow is stretching that definition by their activities surrounding the Ferry.
Show us the money and then we'll know what group(s) are behind the actions against the ferry.
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