Proposals to improve District government health care services have been like kudzu. D.C. General Hospital was shuttered by the control board, which advocated the creation of a HealthCare Alliance. This insurance program for the poor and working class, supported by Mayor Anthony Williams, got off to a rocky start, but is faring better.
The closure of D.C. General was celebrated and cursed. The whiners, along with Howard University, pushed a proposal to create a National Capital Medical Center. That mushroomed into a $400 million plan to construct a 250-bed monstrosity, operated by some nebulous nonprofit organization with a thirst for an annual public subsidy. After expending countless staff hours on the idea, the mayor and D.C. Council had a Gilda Radner moment: never mind.
Each then created a taskforce — that most popular political rescue vehicle. Later, they established a joint task force to develop a proposal to supplant the Howard University proposal, which supplanted the demand to reopen D.C. General Hospital.
Now, this week, Williams, joined by Council Members David Catania and Marion Barry, introduced legislation to provide $245 million to finance a variety of health care activities including the construction of a Inova Fairfax-type healthplex on the D.C. General campus; two ambulatory centers — one each in Ward 7 and 8 — and grants to several organizations including the D.C. Cancer Consortium and the local chapter of the American Lung Association.
The lawmakers’ proposal also includes the possibility of snatching Greater Southeast Community Hospital using eminent domain. Which takes us backto a version of the NCMC, but without the $400 million price tag.
District officials are a whirling dervish. I’m getting dizzy just watching them.
This latest proposition may ignite celebration — except that it isn’t clear where it fits within the District’s comprehensive health services delivery plan. That’s because there isn’t one. There hasn’t been one since 1989, admits Dr. Gregg Pane, the District’s chief medical officer.
Each season for the past two years, he has promised to release one. Last winter, it was by spring; in the spring it was by summer. Tuesday he said expect it this fall. But isn’t it already fall?
“This level of investment compels us even more to get out a state health plan,” says Sharon Baskerville, head of the D.C. Primary Care Association, adding that there have been several drafts and she, too, just wants to get it out.
Pane says the most important things are accountability and performance measures. But without a plan, what is the city measuring?
It is a good thing that Williams during his tenure put a strong focus on health care services. But without a road map, it’s unclear where it’s all going. Which leads to one conclusion: It’s all political, as Barry once said about the NCMC.
Have mercy. It’s time to stop. If I’m quoting Marion Barry, my head must be spinning.
Jonetta Rose Barras is the political analyst for WAMU radio’s D.C. “Politics Hour with Kojo and Jonetta.” She can be reached at [email protected]
