Thursday, July 3, 2008 6:10 PM CDT
COLUMN: State mandates eye exams for kids; why shouldn't it pay bills?
By HARRY REYNOLDS, Editorial page editor
hreynolds@jg-tc.com
The last time I filled my gas tank the tab came to $63 plus. But I make enough to afford it. I owe nothing on my 12-year-old battered, dented, paint peeling Dakota.
Climbing food costs, driven by fuel prices and the competition from biofuels, I can afford it. My children are adults. So, it’s just wife and me eating. We even go out to restaurants sometimes.
My teeth are in pretty good shape. Of course, most of them are crowned and there’s the anchored bridge. Doris’ teeth are perpetually sound – and straight. We can afford to go to the dentist.
A few years ago I got hearing aids. The first thing I heard was my truck’s engine. I wish I hadn’t. The hearing aids make it possible for me to engage in a conversation in a crowded room without nodding my head knowingly and wondering what the hell they’re saying. But I can afford it.
We can keep cool in the summer and warm in the winter despite soaring power bills. I get warm and cozy, though, thinking about utility executives using their customers’ money to buy ball tickets. We can afford it.
So, I’m not complaining. I don’t like being in a money squeeze witnessing dramatic rises in the cost of living. The trouble is while everything we buy goes up, wages go down. That’s been the trend as our economy shifts from industrial to service and technology.
The middle class increasingly feels the pinch. People in the lower-income bracket really feel it. And those living in poverty are being crushed.
While all this is going on, our legislators on the national and state level continuing thinking about ways to relieve us of our money.
I’m not talking about taxes. Tax hikes and budget cuts are used in tandem when budgets get way out of whack. Both the national budget and the Illinois state budget are stampeding into a lake of red. They’ll eventually drown in red ink.
Since we’re riding them, we’ll drown too.
State and national government can stave off financial disaster by increasing taxes on everything from gas to merchandise. They’re not as limited for all this as those who foot the bill
In recent years, the national government and state governments have increased unfunded mandates. This is way to satisfy lobbyists, social crusaders and other entities and individuals who want to make you do what you don’t want to do — at your expense, of course.
Government hands you the bill for every meal.
The latest example of unfunded mandates is the new Illinois law requiring every child entering kindergarten have their eyes examined by an optometrist. This costs money.
Children entering school also must have dental examinations, physical, immunizations, hearing tests among other things.
School nurses will continue to screen children’s eyes. And that makes sense. Optometrist, who lobbied for eye examination mandate, were driven by a very real interest in detecting and treating vision problems in children.
The state’s interest and optometrist associations’ desires to make sure every child undergoes a professional eye examination is commendable.
The flipside is obvious. What the state mandates, it does not fund. Going to the optometrist costs money. Many people can barely manage to pay the grocery bill. They struggle to pay utility bills, buy gas and pay the rent or house payment and a myriad of other bills, let alone pay for an eye examination essentially duplicating the services of the school nurse.
There is difference between the two examinations, of course, but enough differences to justify a bill for every child entering school?
Many doctors, Optometrist, dentists and others in the health profession won’t accept patients in state-funded programs. Understandable considering the state’s propensity to short-change them or delay payments.
State government engages in this in the name of budgeting. It’s something government can do, but we cannot. We don’t make car payments or house payments, banks take them away.
We are expected to pay the bills on time and in full. Sometimes, that’s difficult — especially, for the poor. These days, most of us. We compel every child to have professional examinations in the name of the few.
We’re getting into that habit in a lot of things these days. What once the school nurse could do, now she’s not good enough to do. It’s costing us far more than we benefit.
The money parents dig up to pay for examinations the state mandates could be used to pay bills for more pressing and far more justifiable things. Making certain that no child’s eye problems or dental problem may be possible, but is it practical?
Are we to the point where government — a creature of good intent, but often bad result — is to dictate to parents what they should decide for themselves and their children, based on the reality of their every day life?
If government assumes the right to dictate visits to the dentist, optometrist, doctor, etc., shouldn’t it be required to pay the bill?
Why isn’t it reimbursing health-care givers in full and in a timely manner? If it would do, doctors would probably accept state-funding patients.
The reality being what it is — medical providers refusing to treat patients because the state fails to fulfill its obligation — it seems unjust to force people who can ill afford it to pay medical bills for examinations.
It’s easy to impose mandates someone else has to pay for. It takes away the right of parents to make their own decisions regarding health care for their children. Some of their decisions are determined by their finances.
We live in the real world. The people most cognizant of that are the people who struggle to live in it.
They reside in reality each day.
So do the doctors, dentists, Optometrist and other healthcare givers. They’ve got to get paid, or they don’t stay in business. They know reality.
Too bad, the government doesn’t.
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father bob wrote on Jul 3, 2008 3:12 PM:
have you ever heard of "All Kids"? it's the state program that provides health coverages for the children of low income families. never too late for you to start another brood harry.... "