NPR: managed health care

ANNOUNCER
As health care reform sweeps the nation, medical facilities are accepting the idea that managed care will be in their future. But the competition that comes with change is hard for others to accept. From Wenatchee, Diane De Rooy has the story.

DIANE
A year ago, the Wenatchee Valley Clinic saw the handwriting on the wall, and the message was: managed health care is coming. Since day surgery is a large part of managed health care, the clinic began negotiating with Central Washington Hospital for use of its facilities.

But according to Dr. Chris Stahler, clinic board chairman, hospitals have very high built-in costs, prohibitive to the basics of managed care. Central Washington Hospital preferred not to negotiate on prices, he says.

The clinic felt compelled to construct its own facility, adjacent to its own doctors’ offices, to keep surgical costs down. The hospital saw that it could lose a great deal of market share, since clinic doctors perform more than half of the day surgeries now using hospital facilities.

Stahler sees more opportunity for cooperation between the two entities. The Rockwood Clinic in Spokane uses a surgery facility built for and leased to them by Sacred Heart Hospital, he says.

But negotiations between the hospital and clinic broke down repeatedly. Bulldozers are now busily taking up the asphalt where they are breaking ground for the clinic’s new day surgery facility.

NPR: Growth Management Act protest

ANNOUNCER
What works in New Mexico won’t work in Washington. That argument is at the core of citizen protest in Chelan County against the so—called “Catron County” ordinance county commissioners want to adopt. Diane De Rooy reports.

DIANE
Some 500 counties throughout the West, including Chelan County, are considering a county ordinance based on the law in Catron County, New Mexico.

Similar legislation has already been overturned on legal challenges in Walla Walla and in Boundary County, Idaho. And even though Washington attorney general Christine Gregoire and Chelan County Prosecutor Gary Riesen have already issued statements advising against adopting the ordinance, Chelan County commissioners are moving swiftly ahead to approve it.

The Catron County ordinance model attempts to take powers away from state and federal agencies. Opponents point out that the areas affected include the Federal Clean Water Act, the Shorelines Management Act, and the state’s own Growth Management Act. In courts in Bonner’s Ferry, Idaho, and Walla Walla, Washington, these efforts to circumvent state constitutions have been found illegal.

Chelan County commissioners have already missed several deadlines for complying with the state’s Growth Management Act. Opponents see this proposed legislation as an attempt to further avoid filing a comprehensive plan.

Commissioners have called a public hearing to be held Tuesday, September 27th for citizen input regarding this proposed law. Opponents plan to marshal their resources for a public protest at that time.

For Northwest Public Radio, I’m Diane De Rooy.

NPR: Growth Management Act, public power

ANNOUNCER
A Catron County-style ordinance in Chelan County could have negative effects on the ecology of the five valleys within. Yet there is serious support for such an ordinance. Diane De Rooy explains why.

DIANE
Most supporters of the proposed Chelan County “Wise Use” ordinance are senior citizens. They are farmers, hunters, landowners and pioneers.

Curt Epperson, an attorney from Manson, claims the feds have declared war on Chelan County. Epperson has assembled an extensive clipping file of outrageous government boondoggles. He uses these examples to show that the government is corrupt and must be replaced by right thinkers.

Perhaps most inflammatory to old farmers and grangers in Chelan County has been the recent argument between hydroelectric projects and free salmon runs. Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt has stated that there are too many dams, and that he’d like to tear one of the big ones out.

Them’s fighting words in Chelan County, where the Grange Movement of the 1930s brought public power to the state and progress to farming.

Even though the Wise Use ordinance cannot succeed as written, it is the only weapon supporters feel they have right now to fight a government they believe is out of control.

For Northwest Public Radio, I’m Diane De Rooy.

NPR: Growth Management Act, housing

ANNOUNCER
One phase of the state’s comprehensive Growth Management Act requires that local governments provide for adequate low—cost housing. Wenatchee is the first city in Washington State to propose meeting those requirements by allowing manufactured housing throughout the city. Diane De Rooy reports.

DIANE
A population boom in the Wenatchee Valley has sent housing costs up, while wages have remained relatively low. As a result, affordable housing has been priced out of reach for about half of the population.

The city’s planning department has proposed an ordinance allowing manufactured housing to be sited without discrimination throughout the residential area.

But some local citizens are opposed to the ordinance, envisioning barren city lots occupied by aluminum—clad mobile homes. City planner Bob Hughes says that stigma is well deserved. But he adds that the industry has responded to complaints of shoddy construction by making their homes solid and aesthetically pleasing.

Since the Uniform Building Code requires that a manufactured home must cost more than the price of the lot, Hughes thinks most homes will cost about $80,000, an unheard—of price for a home in Wenatchee today.

He adds that the distinction between “affordable” and “low-income” housing needs to be considered by neighbors and the real estate industry.

Hughes says allowing more manufactured housing will lessen the margin between homeowners and renters by 25 percent.

For Northwest Public Radio, I’m Diane De Rooy.

█ █ █ MEDIA

Award-winning instruction sheet