TAX IMPLIES MEDICAL FIELD CREATED THE POOR

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, January 28, 1992                   TAG: 9201280476
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A6   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short
TAX IMPLIES MEDICAL FIELD CREATED THE POOR
THE GOVERNOR is proposing a tax on health-care providers and hospitals to help pay for Medicaid. This concerns me for several reasons.
No. 1, I am a physician who has always cared for all patients, regardless of insurance status. To me, this tax is a slap in the face. Physicians have had an increase in their Medicaid reimbursement only twice in its history.
No. 2, the tax is unfair. It is an involuntary tax on a select segment of the population. The poor are society's problem. This tax implies they are a problem created by the medical field. This tax is polarizing and causes much harm in people's attitudes.
No. 3, all taxes cost money to administer. To tax health-care providers and hospitals and then use the revenue to pay them makes no fiscal sense. This is an example of robbing Peter to pay Peter. The governor is trying to pull the wool over the state's eyes.
Challenge him to say what he means. To me, he is saying the people of Virginia contribute enough to welfare and will pay no more; if doctors and hosp;itals need more money to care for the poor, they will have to pay it themselves. I do not believe the people are saying this. We are saying: Get to the root of this problem of welfare and start working on it. We are all tired of the increasing welfare lines. Coming up with crafty, unfair and expensive ways to reshuffle money is not the solution. JOSEPH G. GUNSELMAN ROANOKE

by Archana Subramaniam by CNB