EDITORIAL: Our health an issue to care about in 2017

Jan. 02--Southwest Florida survived a healthy dose of politics in 2016, but in the coming year the question becomes whether our health care will progress or regress in the hands of politicians.

Delivering improved health care policies and expanded services to Southwest Florida is, in our view, among seven community priorities for 2017. A year from now we expect to see a significantly different health care system than today. At issue is this: for better or for worse?

Affordable Care Act

Foremost in 2017, we're anxious to see what happens with the mantra of "repeal and replace" the Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare.

Three separate fall 2016 polls by Pew Research Center, New York Times/CBS and Politico/Harvard each put dissatisfaction with the act at about 54 percent. So repeal and replace. But with what?

President-elect Donald Trump vowed during the campaign that repeal was on his Day One agenda, but since said some aspects should be retained.

Some suggest the government should provide health care block grants to states, which would put decisions in the hands of the Florida House and Senate that famously couldn't agree two years ago on Medicaid expansion. Some 1.6 million Floridians have bought health insurance through federal exchanges. Women in general also are at risk -- a recently released report says 69.6 percent of Collier women have health insurance compared with 78 percent statewide and 85 percent nationally.

U.S. Rep Francis Rooney, a Naples Republican becoming Southwest Florida's new congressman, has said he'd repeal Obamacare and "start fresh with a competition-based system that would allow the free market to work across state lines."

U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Florida, has suggested employers could provide money for workers to buy their own policies; for other folks, create tax credits for buying health coverage plans. The government's role would be to handle health coverage for high-risk patients, he said.

Better off

Collier County won't feel as much pain from whatever happens with Obamacare if donors, volunteers and lawmakers provide the proper aid to several nonprofits we hope will do well in 2017:

+ The Healthcare Network of Southwest Florida wants to improve services to the Golden Gate area with a new $18 million clinic, asking the Legislature for $5 million. Requests haven't survived the state budget process the past two years, but the clinic could serve 50,000 (10,000 children) with medical, dental and behavioral health care.

+ Collier lawmakers were told in November that Florida remains 49th among states in per capital mental health funding -- $39 per person compared with the $120 national average. Agencies like the David Lawrence Center that treat mental illness and addiction need far greater support from lawmakers, along with the community's backing, in 2017.

+ The volunteer-driven Neighborhood Health Clinic is a Naples success story since 1999 and now needs local officials' and community support to move forward in 2017 with a 6,000-square-foot expansion of its Goodlette-Frank Road clinic, including adding dental care.

+ 1 of every 5 children has a mental health disorder; more than half lack proper vision care and two-thirds of students have tooth decay by third grade -- reasons the Naples Children & Education Foundation is making kids' health care a focus for 2017.

Good health

There are other reasons we consider advancement in health care a key priority for Southwest Florida in 2017:

+ Responding to voters' wishes in November, legislators and state health officials must use due care as they make medical marijuana available to the chronically ill. In our view, that must be done without infringing on local government rights to limit where dispensaries may go.

+ We're excited for April when the new $242 million, 292,000-square-foot Golisano Children's Hospital should be opened south of Fort Myers, bringing more beds and improved care to our sickest youngsters.

+ South Lee County doesn't have a hospital but we hope to see construction move swiftly in 2017 on Lee Health's new $140 million, 146,000-square-foot freestanding emergency room and outpatient medical campus in Estero.

Second in a weeklong series looking at 2017 community priorities.

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