Date

THE LETTERS AND COMMENTS ON THIS PAGE ARE NOT IN EXACT ORDER THAT THEY WERE WRITTEN.
THE MOST RECENT ONES ARE AT OR CLOSE TO THE TOP OF THE LIST.

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We have no bills to improve our healthcare alive at the end of the second month of the 2008 Legislature. Last legislative session we worked, lobbied and made no progress, save a Task Force. Now with the recommendations of the Task Force being turned into Bills that have all been killed, deferred or denied, the people of Maui are shunned once again. How much subterfuge and behind the scenes politicking did it take to eradicate all the hard work of a Task Force made of volunteers who put in hundreds of hours each? The Broken Trust of the people of Maui has been used to betray the confidence put into their elected officials, save a few in the House who worked to help our health care situation. This health system seems perpetually governmental controlled supported and aided by unions, legislators and lobbyists. Does anyone else wonder if this is a socialist state or part of the USA and free enterprise? The Department of Justice is looking into overriding the State's CON laws and abolishing them as they did federally. Is there anything left to do to fight for better health care or just accept the state of our dilapidated hospital, part of the government run system and hope it gets better? Or do we sell and move to the Mainland like so many, including Dr. Ron Kwon, Maria Weber and Jean Vereck, all who cared and fought hard and got nowhere?

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Last Sunday, the Maui News ran a story describing how our Hawaii State Legislators have, for years, persistently and consistently ignored our pleas to abolish the Certificate of Need process which prevents Maui from having another hospital. According to the article, nothing will happen in this session either, since the healthcare bills originating in Maui County are stalled yet again in Honolulu. Why?
The article states that we "should be persistent and consistent" with our fight to abolish the CON. Well OK, but are those my only options? I think not! I believe we are entitled to an explanation from those who refuse to pave the way for a private Maui hospital. I would like them to give us one legitimate reason for keeping the CON in Hawaii. The federal government abolished it on the national level because it did not serve the purpose for which it was intended. But it appears that our persistent, consistent efforts to do away with it in Hawaii will never match the consistent, persistent efforts of those in power to keep it in effect.
The last I heard, Senator Ige was asked to hear a bill that abolishes the CON process. He has denied the hearing and offers no reason. He doesn't answer emails or take phone calls. He represents Oahu, but he seems to have a lot of power when it comes to providing or denying healthcare for Maui county. In contrast, take a look at how many private hospitals there are on Oahu. What is wrong with this picture? Why are our own Maui County representatives seemingly so ineffective in furthering local goals at the state level?
M.R.
Maui

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Do you want more (private) hospitals on Maui? Who is really stopping us from building more hospitals on Maui?
Call or email Sen. Roz Baker and Sen. David Ige today and ask them to hear and support AIHM’s Bill to abolish the Certificate of Need. AIHM’s Bill is SB2750

Sen. Baker and Sen. Ige refuse to hear AIHM’s Bill. They insist on spending our tax dollars on hospitals instead of letting Maui have private hospitals. Oahu has private hospitals.

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______________________________________________________________________________________________________________

It is a bill, currently stuck in the Senate committee on Health, that when passed, will save Hawaii taxpayers a lot of money on healthcare.

So why is this bill not being heard?
That, ladies and gentlemen, is the Million Dollar Question

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Will you please hear and give support to SB2750 for the Maui community? It may appear that only a few of us care because all of us are not emailing or calling you, but the fact is that the whole AIHM organization is and many other Maui residents are watching and waiting to see what is going to happen here.

There is no reason to keep the CON process. You have been presented with all kinds of documents that have been presented nationwide which prove CON doesn't work.

Will you please represent those who voted for you to do so?

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Aloha

Please bring this bill to committee today. The CON is outdated and hurting
the livelihood of the majority of your constituents. Why are you not
supporting this bill and what are you doing to see that the necessary
beds/services needed for in-patient care on island are being built pronto?

A.S.
Maui

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Subject: SB2750

Aloha Senator Ige

I have been following the status of SB2750 and yesterday was told by Senator Roz Baker that she asked you to set a hearing for it and that you refused.
I am shocked and amazed that this could happen - for several reasons.

First, I was warned that there could be this game where my representative, Roz, would appear to be good cop and you would be bad cop in this situation. I surely hope that isn't happening.

If it is not, why on earth would all of you sit there considering requests come in for hundreds of millions of dollars for improvements to our one hospital, Maui Memorial?

If using my tax money is approved for this, fine, but please spread things around some. Put SOME money in MMMC and also let private enterprise in to ease the burden on us with newer hospitals.

You are on OAHU, Mr. Ige. I really can't understand your position - being so strongly against Maui having just or two more hospitals and you sit there with many, many of them.

Please explain to me your reason for not allowing the hearing on CON. I see no reason for this. It is probably one of the easiest bills on the list for you to decide on. It serves NO purpose in the improvement of Maui Healthcare - it is most likely the only thing STOPPING it.

Please respond. Mahalo.
MR
Maui

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I am baffled. What is confusing to me, is this:

"WHY on earth did YOU introduce SB 2750 when all along you had no intention of supporting it or, for that matter, even lift a finger to just get the bill scheduled for a hearing."

I know, you have tried to get Senator Ige to do just that, but he just has not replied. Not your fault he can't hear.

You know another thing that is baffling? You have not even bothered to dignify my numerous requests with a reply. Don't you agree that just plain common courtesy would be in order?

Please help me get out of this state of confusion and give me an answer - whatever answer YOU deem appropriate and Roz, please don't send me another reply like the previous one which simply said: "Thank you for your email and your perspective"

Another question just entered my mind: "Do you do that often? I mean, write bills, proposals and other things without ever following up on them? and " Is avoiding answering questions and everyday affair?"

See what I mean? A whole bunch of questions and no answers. Thank God it is an election year.

Thank you.........for nothing.

Bert S.
Kihei, Hawaii

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Aloha Senator Baker,

I have made a request to you before to please support the people of Maui in hearing SB2750. I received a reply that provided information of which I was
not able to determine your position or support. According to the Coconut Chronicle, you are the roadblock preventing the hearing of SB2750. Is there
a compelling reason for your apparent lack of support? Once again, I ask that you please support hearing SB2750. I don't feel the need nor do I see
the benefit of creating a long detailed defense of why this would be "the right thing to do". I truly believe those reasons have been communicated more than enough.
If nothing else, your support for this Bill because your constituants have worked so long and so hard for this and because it is so passionately needed should be enough. Frankly, I just don't understand. It feels as though following the democratic process is not very effective. Perhaps in time, I will see that it does work albeit I will never understand why it requires so much of so many people's time and effort to take one step forward. Perhaps that coming from a corporate environment is the reason. The
company I worked for would have been gone years ago had it taken this much effort, time and money for our customers to be heard. I really must be missing something. I don't think I am the only one feeling
the way I do.
Mahalo,
DP

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Maui County being in the "Island State" of Hawaii, we have a unique geographic and demographic profile as it relates to healthcare. The problem here is that our major trauma hospital is located on the island of Oahu, 100 miles from the Island of Maui and Maui County (30-40 minutes by air, not yet accounting for ground transport to Kahului Airport from Maui Hospital [15-20 minutes], and Honolulu Airport to Queens Medical [15-20 minutes]). The "GOLDEN HOUR" is non-existent once you factor in the transport from incident location (10-30 minutes) to Maui Hospital ER, wait in ER hold (10-30 minutes, if lucky), and evaluation by ER physicians (10-15 minutes). *These times are very conservative. Which puts the citizens and visitors (tourists) in a serious, if not grievous position when it comes to health care when gravely ill or seriously injured.

The new hospital could serve the Kihei/Wailea community, compliment, and supplement the present Maui County medical care infrastructure. It would be constructed in a community 12-13 miles, 30 minutes from present one, to primarily service that area, and the next closest areas of Lahaina and Kula. Granted our present hospital Maui Memorial Medical Center (MMMC) is a fairly decent institution, however it is about 50 years old, out dated equipment, and has had staffing problems for years. As well as, recently established doctors declining to admit their patients due to facility internal problems, ranging from over stressed, understaffed medical floors, to marginal sanitary conditions in OR, and dilapidated ventilation systems.

MMMC thus have been left with less than adequate physician coverage for serious illnesses and injuries, like advanced cardiac care, neuro surgeons, vascular specialists, and orthopedics. Patients with serious conditions are sent to Oahu for their advanced medical care, majority of the time at patient expense, or some incidents co-paid by their medical insurance, still an extra expense none the less. This also deprives the patient of family support and care, unless their family members fly to Oahu as well.

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To: sendige@Capitol.hawaii.gov
Subject: SB2750
I have been on Maui since 1966 and sadly have watched the demise of proper medical care for the citizenry of this Island. I have also just finished reading "Broken Trust" and fear, though a few less dollars are involved, that the same devious actions are involved now regarding Maui's healthcare.
Roz Baker, our Senator, has contiinued to talk, order special studies....... for years. We have nothing to show for it.....Medicine on this Island is mid 20th Century and to think we are in the USA !! To review the control of Oahu over our Island's medical needs is another lost and tragic exercise. I beg of you to sign SB 2750. If the Government can't handle our needs, at least provide us with the ability to bring private corporations here to complete the task. Roz Baker will not be re-elected and you alone will them bear the blame for the further demise of care for Mauians.

JV (Trapped in West Maui)
Lahaina

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As a taxpaying citizen of Maui and active member of ACS. I am begging you to stop the stuff you are party to and get busy and do what is pono. I know you know what that means and you my friend are not doing this. Step up and be real and help the citizens instead of yourself.
C.

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Senator Baker,
RE: SB2750
I have written you several times regarding this most important issue. I do not understand your resistance to this bill and I would like an explanation. It benefits the people of Maui. It will save lives & money. There is NO apparent reason for you to consistently ignore and/or bury health care issues here. If you have valid reasons, please share them.
I voted for you and I expect you to represent me and the best interests of the citizens of Maui. Among those interests, health care is high on the list.
That you attempt to stop bills from being heard is criminal at best.
Additionally, your strong-arm tactics with Senator Ige to coerce him are transparent and despicable.
As I said, I voted for you...now I will vote AGAINST you. You have no honor & no pride.
Sick & Tired,

LG

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Elected Officials,

It is time to abolish the CON. The "Certificate Of Greed" that is sucking the very life from our island.

You all have an obligation and a sworn DUTY to represent the needs of the electorate. You have not heard us and continue to ignore the logic of what's right in front of all of you.
People are literally DYING on Maui because our medical facility here is a RELIC. Maybe it should be disassembled and taken on tour with the remains of Father Damien; "the Relic". Nah...the black mold on it is a health HAZARD. And Father Damien helped people. What a concept! Maui Memorial is, in and of itself, a health hazard.

Maui is a premiere island destination. It is unspeakable that, as such, all we have to offer is a hospital that would be shut down in any third world country. It is unconscionable that our elected representatives are not just allowing but perpetrating and perpetuating the insanity of the CON.
We have had incredible opportunities to advance our medical facilities here and were continually shot down by YOU.
What are WE left with?? A ramshackle deadly building with outdated equipment with the seriously injured & ill waiting on the airport runways for transport and a government that has no pride.

Listen up...YES WE CAN & WE WILL VOTE!
YOU have failed in your service of the citizens of Maui and the State of Hawaii. To allow us to suffer & die because of some political scheming is unacceptable. This anger and frustration is what you get after all the nice letters begging and pleading for your intervention. Logic and science have no impact on you either.

You are ALL replaceable.
Our loved ones are not.

Maui Resident

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I am a senior citizen living on Maui and every now and then I move into the State of Confusion to spend some time there and today I am there. What made me move into that state is still baffling to me, but my doctors warned me that more things will baffle me as I grow older. Last week I sent you the e-mail request below and the thing that baffles me is WHY YOU have not even bothered to dignify my request with a reply. Don't you agree that just plain common courtesy would be in order?

Please help me get out of this state of confusion and give me an answer - whatever answer YOU deem appropriate.

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Aloha Chair Ige, Vice Chair Fukunaga and members of the Senate Committee on Health.

Healthcare cost in Hawaii is rising and will keep on doing so as long as we keep the hospital Certificate Of Need system in place. The US Congress implemented the CON system and repealed it after just four years. Two concerns guided that decision - the law failed to reduce the nation's rising health care costs, and it was beginning to produce detrimental effects in local communities nationwide. We just saw an example of that here in Hawaii when that system denied the people of Maui a much needed second hospital. In one study that compared health care prices and expenses, it was shown that such prices and expenses are actually higher in areas with CON regulations than they are in areas without CON. National hospital care expenditures increased from $52.4 billion when Congress enacted the 1974 National Health Act to an estimated $230.1 billion in 1989. Today, Americans are spending nearly a trillion dollars annually on health care. Nowhere can we find a single study that asserts that CON laws succeed in lowering health care costs. The CON system has proven only ONE thing: IT DOES NOT WORK. Federal funding for CON programs ended in 1987, and 14 States have now abandoned the program altogether. It's now time to abolish it in Hawaii. If anyone wants to know why, just ask the people of Maui. SB 2750 was introduced on 01/22/08, passed the first reading and was referred to your committee. It is probably sitting in a cabinet somewhere in the building. I don't know - I am just a senior citizen with a legitimate concern, shared by many of my friends and acquaintances on Maui. Can you please help by digging up this bill and giving it a hearing? Without it, the people of Maui (and the other islands) don't have a chance at all and our healthcare cost will just keep on going up.

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Dear Senator Hanabusa:

In Maui County we have a unique geographic and demographic profile as it relates to healthcare. Distances, water, semi-limited road access, and delayed ambulance response (on occasion area units unable to respond due to other calls for service). The "GOLDEN HOUR" is ticking away in the transport from incident location (more so outside of Wailuku proper) to Maui Memorial Medical Center ER, the wait in ER, and evaluation by ER physicians, usually already adds up to that hour.

Think about it, if injured on a beach or car accident, suffering head, neck injury, or arterial bleeding, in the Lahaina, Kihei, Wailea, or Makena area, wouldn't it make more sense to be sent to an ER in the community you're injured in, to be stabilized within 5-10 minutes, THAN ride 20-40 minutes to Wailuku. TICK, TICK, TICK …. How would you or your family want to be treated in this situation?

Another problem here is that our major trauma hospital is located on the island of Oahu, 100+ miles from the Island of Maui and Maui County. At this point, the Golden Hour is pretty much non-existent even before you factor in the transfer to Oahu from Maui to the trauma Medical Center. Time delays may vary, due to bad traffic, bad weather, and flight delays. This puts the citizens and visitors (tourists) on Maui in a serious, if not a grievous position as it comes to health care when gravely ill or seriously injured. Many have already died, and will keep dying because of this "time warp" dilemma.

The new hospitals would primarily serve the Kihei/Wailea and Lahaina communities, then compliment, and supplement the present Maui County emergency medical service infrastructure, especially during major and/or multiple traffic accidents, road closures, extreme bad weather, and other disasters. All these types of incidents have had crippling circumstances to the emergency services on Maui many times in the past.

THE PEOPLE of Maui and Hawaii had been presented with a very rare opportunity to get acute care hospitals for FREE, and it was stonewalled with some old outdated, Federal mandate, that they have since repealed, and should be repealed in Hawaii as well.

Please DO THE RIGHT THING and find a way to allow Maui and Hawaii as a whole to have additional medical facilities and services for individual communities. TO BETTER SERVE OUR COMMUNITIES AND IT'S CITIZENS AND VISITORS.

Sincerely,
Maui Resident

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More than 3,000 of us form the membership for the Association for Improved Healthcare on Maui. As a grass roots organization that is growing rapidly as tragedies occur in our daily lives due to poor healthcare on Maui we have let you know repeatedly that we want the CON abolished so that we can have the following:

What we do not want is a faceless bureaucracy dictating the healthcare for all on Maui protecting against additional competition so that the Maui profits can be used to cross-subsidize other facilities. We do not want politicians fighting over the spoils of healthcare and subjecting us and our medical personnel to the outcome of serious medical problems and unnecessary death.

· Our valuable doctors and medical personnel are leaving out of frustration for lack of not only good hospital facilities, but their inability to purchase state of the art equipment for their own medical offices without going through the CON process

· There are not enough hospital facilities to take care of day to day needs much less address a disaster that could befall an island. Our numbers stand against the national standards, we fall short by a factor of 3, and it’s a disgrace.

· People die because we do not have the benefit of the “golden hour” for stroke and heart attack victims. Heart attacks are the leading cause of death for men and women and we have no hope of being treated in time to save our lives or save us from serious damage and medical complications because we can’t be treated within the required time and must wait to be shipped to Oahu. People with serious head injuries cannot be flown due to air pressure, so they have only the treatment that is available here on Maui which is many times fatal.

· The only hospital on Maui is a crumbling 56 year old edifice saturated with black mold. We have no level one trauma center along with many other critical and acute care needs.

Can you tell us what we have to do to influence you to abolish the CON? You are our representative and have not stood up for us and our needs, so please tell us what it would take for you to change your position. We are sure you don’t want to be responsible for the medical crisis now occurring on Maui which is why we need to fix this now and abolish the CON. We are more than willing to work with you and address issues/concerns so that we can all win in this situation, what do you say?

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as a resident of Maui i am unable to understand your failure to support private funding of medical care on Maui and elsewhere. there unless you provide your reasoning why the gov should pay for health care and provide 1 star service when 4 star service s needed i have no reason to vote or support you. i will do those things available to remove you from your office for failure to support the people you represent. Voting is the first option. We need to support those repr that understand gov does not need to be in the health care business. Obviously there must be a connection to the money for you or you would not permit gov in the health care bus. when private health care would be available if you supported it.

maui resident

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This morning we hand delivered a copy of the following memo to Senator Ige's office. Joe would like to see this bill be given a fair hearing.

The following bill has been referred to the Senate HTH Committee. I am writing to respectfully request that this bill be scheduled for hearing.

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Dear Senator Baker,

Having read January 21, 2008 HHSC's pleads for more State monies I have an opinion:

My thoughts on this are:
HHSC admin is crying about money (State Tax Payers $$$), asking the Gov. for more money
to update and improve health care in the state. How about we implement a plan TODAY.!
You as OUR State Senators and Representatives have the power to do this NOW.
Abolish the CON and let Malulani and West Maui Health Center be built for a better,
safer, healthier, and modern health care system, here on Maui. This will not only be a
"quick" fix, but it would give HHSC and HAH time to catch up as well, benefiting EVERYONE
in Hawaii.

DUH! … There's a problem with the current system and administration, how much more "innovative
and cost effective" can you get than getting a $211 million hospital built for free in Kihei, and an urgent
care small hospital for $70 million in Lahaina for starters. Without the CON more updated health care
facilities can be planned and built through out Hawaii.

IF these health facilities (businesses) fail, and/or have to be bailed out, the State can then absorb
them without having to foot the major expenses of planning, building, and outfitting them.
HAS ANYBODY THOUGHT OF THAT!!!

I will be awaiting YOUR opinion on my thoughts.

Sincerely,
Resident
Kihei, Maui

If I don't get a reply, I'll know you're not reading your mail all the way through.

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I have sent you several requests for AN ANSWER. Nothing complicated, but you have chosen to just completely ignore my requests.

A simple YES or NO would have done it, but even that you could not do. John le Carre was absolutely correct when he said:

"If there is one eternal truth of politics, it is that there are always a dozen good reasons for doing nothing."

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