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• Asked the Board to move ahead “with all deliberate speed” on a resolution signaling the intent of the County to turn over the operations of the county nursing home to a private operator.
• Lamented that action was not taken five years ago, as losses have continued to mount.
• Pointed out that service would continue to be provided at the same high level under private ownership.
• Listed services that, unlike the nursing home, the county alone can – and must – provide, with no private alternative. Those services include, among many, housing prisoners, the court system, protecting children, families and the mentally ill, the Highway Dept. and Joint Emergency Dispatch.
• Listed tradeoffs that would have to be made if the county insisted on continuing to run the nursing home – e.g., elimination of the University Extension department, decreasing spending for planning and the park & rec. activities, delaying upkeep and maintenance, etc.
• Lamented “ruthless fear mongering” by those fighting the privatization effort.
• Wrote that “tax increases are not the answer!” as they “will damage our local economy, hurting real people…”

Kudos to County Executive Ziegelbauer. The budget realities have caused him to oppose his own Democratic party, which voted to oppose the sale. He’s making the tough calls and asking his board to support him by doing the same. Soon. “The longer we wait the more difficult it gets, and it’s plenty difficult already.” I couldn’t have said it better myself.

I'm not going to take time to refute all of this nonsense from Supervisor Dobbs, but anyone interested in the reams of factual data can see it all posted on my website and judge for themselves. See it posted at www.bobziegelbauer.com and click on "Local News." Feel free to call me with questions."

Bob Ziegelbauer (Wed May 30 11:12:10 2007)

Please note: The following 1,227-word comment was submitted anonymously - which I don't respect or appreciate, but will print in the interest of fairness. JE
Citizens Opposing the Privatization and or Sale of the Manitowoc Health Care Center (COP/S) is a non-partisan Citizen Action Group. Predicated on the moral responsibility of a community to care for those who can no longer care for themselves, COP/S is dedicated to the preservation of the Manitowoc Health Care Center as a county owned facility to serve as a nursing home of the finest quality for county residents and, most importantly, as the safety net for those county residents who can no longer care for themselves.

It is a fact that nursing homes (private or publicly owned) are legally forbidden to care for people for whom they are not capable of providing necessary care. This is a good provision, one that protects the residents of nursing homes. It also creates a responsibility to be borne by County Governments - to provide for those residents whose needs can not be met by the private sector. These vulnerable (safety net) residents include those:

With no ability to pay
Who pose a violent threat to others
With medically complex disabilities that cannot be met by other providers
With an active mental illness
Whose cost of care far exceeds the rate that Medicaid will pay
The Manitowoc Health Care Center (MHCC) now provides care for at least 33 residents that meet the above criteria – there is no privately owned nursing home that will accept these residents. There also is a waiting list of about 20 county ‘dementia’ residents who seek care at MHCC. These numbers will grow as the number of Alzheimer’s patients increases, as the population ages (the coming of the Baby Boomers).

Although County governments are not ‘mandated’ to operate nursing homes, they are mandated to provide care for those who become vulnerable, whose needs can no longer be met by the private sector. It is COP/S position that this care can most humanely and economically be provided by a county owned and operated facility such as the already existing Manitowoc Health Care Center, that care offered on a broader, more complex scale can more efficiently provide care for those who become vulnerable, that the scale of efficiency is proportionate to the broad range of resident needs, those requiring the least of care buffering the costs of those who need more intensive care.

Currently, at the MHCC, the average cost per resident is about $220/day or $80,000 per year. Alternative care for ‘safety net’ residents could go as high as $700/day, or $255,500 per year, in the private sector. None of these providers are in Manitowoc County.

It would only take 12 of the already 33 ‘safety net’ residents to receive care in a high cost facility to create a cost to Manitowoc County Taxpayers $3 million or more per year. This is the same amount of money, that part of the tax levy, that has pushed the County Executive to ask for the sale of the MHCC. Currently, this $3 million provides care for 150 residents, these tax dollars of County taxpayers, remaining in the County for recirculation. If, after privatization, the equivalent of just 12 residents are shipped out of the county for care, not only will there be an added burden to those affected families, but that $3 million will totally vanish from the County.

Privately Owned Nursing Homes:

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