INCOMES, OUTLAYS DON'T JIBE WITH LACK OF PROFITS

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

DATE: SATURDAY, February 29, 1992                   TAG: 9203020208
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A-11   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium
INCOMES, OUTLAYS DON'T JIBE WITH LACK OF PROFITS
THOMAS L. Robertson (Commentary, Feb. 7) referred to the Carilion Health System as a not-for-profit health-care business. I say that's pure hogwash. Gov. Wilder said: Scrutinize the growth of top-executive salaries and benefits, many of which now average $150,000 to $200,000 a year. Much higher than the top-paid governors and more than double the salaries of most.
Does that sound like the salary of a not-for-profit administrator? All the new clinics, those posh new buildings, huge new additions, millions upon millions of new equipment purchases - does that sound like a not-for-profit business?
We are fortunate to have a very capable and expert anesthesiologist in the Roanoke Valley. This person earned more than $250,000 last year. Does that sound like the earnings of a person working in a not-for-profit hospital group?
I've become totally disgusted with most of the politicians running our government. When I read about the woman driving a school bus part-time so she could afford to buy health insurance for her family, I felt sick to my stomach. A whopping 44 percent increase threatens to take her entire earnings!
Bush said, "As long as I am president, we are not going down the road of nationalized health care." If the president of our own country won't help the working people, who will? We desperately need national health care right now, before the whole damn country goes down the drain.
Don't tell us this will take years and years! Slam the door on the horrendous profits right now. Roll back health-care costs to the 1989 level and freeze them. Then launch a full-scale investigation into the whole rotten mess. Do the same thing with the costs of malpractice insurance. Put a cap on amounts of damages awarded and end frivolous lawsuits.
Let your legislators know you're fed up. Tell them it's high time they stood up to the high-powered, well-heeled special-interest groups. Three cheers for our governor, L. Douglas Wilder, and House Majority Leader Richard Cranwell for having the guts to stand up to them. MERTON G. MYERS BUCHANAN

by Bhavesh Jinadra by CNB