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Malad and its health care infrastructure
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Location: Blogs Jim's Blog |
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| Posted by: Jim Hansen |
9/10/2006 |
Malad Valley is a community built by tough Welsh pioneers. A generation ago, Congress recognized that investment in rural health care was indispensible to economic development. Now, Congress has forgotten that lesson and the tough resolve by community leaders to provide for the health of their neighbors.
When I was in Malad, I met with Dr. Gerald Goodenough, who was generous enough to show me around Oneida County Hospital and spent quite a bit of time sharing the challenges of delivering health care in that rural corner of Idaho. I met many people during the day who knew and admired Dr. Goodenough's deep sense of public service. He could be making big bucks in the industry in a big city, but he has stayed in Malad and he continues to serve in many capacities -- including as a county commissioner.
A generation ago, he explained, the Hill-Burton Act helped fund rural hospitals all over the country so that communities would not die because of the rising cost of health care. That's what brought Dr. Goodenough to Malad. Hill-Burton also came with the understanding that no one could be turned away for the inability to pay. Congress apparently understood that rural economic development cannot happen without critical investment in health care. Today, this basic lesson has been forgotten in Congress' obsession with raising money from health care, pharmaceutical and insurance industries and in intense partisan bickering.
As I have visited lots of different towns, I ask folks how they get their health care. It is amazing how resourceful people are in the very small communities that have no hospital or physician. For every one who has toughed it out, however, they have stories of people who have left. Often the development of a health issue in the family that requires more frequent checkups or treatments is the straw that breaks the camel's back. Conversely, younger families choose not to move in because of the challenge they will face if their children become ill. Most of Idaho's children are now being raised in cities.
Malad Valley has the largest per capita concentration of people of Welsh ancestry outside the country of Wales. Last year they rekindled their community pride with the annual Malad Valley Welsh Festival. It is a vivid reminder that Malad was founded by healthy and tough Welsh pioneers. But that's no excuse for
Congress to continue to refuse to be a partner with them as they work to make their community stronger in the 21st century.
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