||| FROM ALISON SANDERS |||
My name is Alison Sanders, and I grew up on Orcas Island, where I am now raising my three children. I serve as the Coalition Coordinator for the Coalition for Orcas Youth, which operates under the umbrella of the Funhouse Commons. I am also the newest commissioner of the Hospital District Board. I believe that community collaboration is what truly strengthens us and the only way to create lasting positive change.
I recently joined the board because I am passionate about fostering a healthy and vibrant community. As a long-time patient at the clinic, I can confidently say that I’ve never seen it as stable as it is right now. The availability of after-hours care, the dental clinic, and access to a pediatrician have made a significant difference. In fact, the
pediatrician alone has transformed my family’s life. While I could write an entire essay about how amazing this pediatrician is, I’ll keep it brief.
Much of the stability is thanks to the Hospital District. They have proven to me that they are a strong community partner, genuinely invested in our needs, and have a clear vision for the future.
To ensure the continued growth and success of the clinic and primary care services, we need to pass the Levy Lid Lift. This will not only allow us to maintain current operations but will also enable the clinic to expand services, such as home care. The Hospital District has also negotiated a 10-year contract with Island Hospital. Given the rising costs of healthcare, this investment is crucial for our community’s future.
We are a community that takes care of each other, and Orcas has a long history of coming together to solve big problems. It’s why we have a clinic in the first place—because the building that is now the Lower Tavern wasn’t big enough anymore.
We have Buck Park because we couldn’t just keep using Burton Burton’s field for Little League. The Orcas Center, the Library, the Funhouse, the skate park—these are all results of community efforts. And the reason we came together for these projects was because we knew they were what was best for our community.
I can’t decide whether the cost will be too much for your household. What I can say is that people spend money on things that matter to them every day. I know how much this will cost my family, and we’ve decided that it’s worth it. It’s worth it to have reliable access to care. I want my community members to have the same opportunity.
I hope you see this Levy Lit Lift for what it truly is: an opportunity to make our community stronger, our children and neighbors healthier, and to ensure that we continue to have access to the services we all need.
Vote yes on the Levy Lid Lift.
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Allison expresses her gratitude for the existence of the medical center but makes no mention of the massive tax increase that this levy proposes.
I am glad to help support, via property taxes, an emergency care facility that is available 24/7. Which is what was promised when the hospital district was first voted on and has never been delivered. But I am not happy to support your doctor’s office. I don’t use the medical center, nor do many other citizens of District #3, so please explain WHY I should fund YOUR doctor’s office?
Please vote NO.
They made promises they intentionally did not keep.
24/7 care NEVER HAPPENED
help to cover many medical partners NEVER HAPPENED
They want .70 cents per thousand on property tax to have all of us subsidize the medical center hours 9-5 not after hour care as promised.
For me that is a $354 increase on my taxes for lies and not being able to use the medical center in an emergency as promised….
They don’t, won’t or can’t tell us what the money will be slated for… Ask what the $ PRICE TAG for a special election is… BECAUSE YOU JUST PAID NEEDLESSLY FOR IT…
JUST VOTE NO so they have to run like any other business and figure it out… are you tired of pay tax increases for others mistakes…
Ken. I do think Allison addresses the issue of both the increased cost to us and why we should fund her (and many others) doctor’s office. Like she has, we should each determine what this tax increase will cost us, and determine whether it is worth it. We should each do our homework and figure it out. As a community we need a stable Medical Center, whether we utilize it ourselves or not. This island cannot support offices for enough doctors to meet our needs. We’ve tried that for years, and have failed for years. Orcas is a community, not just an island where we live. We support with our tax money those institutions on the island that we value for the benefits they provide for the community as a whole: the library, the school, Parks and Recreation, the Medical Center. Whether we use the facility or not, the community needs the Medical Center. With the current instability of federal funding, we are all going to need to focus on taking care of ourselves locally. We need to pass this levy.
Our hospital district has finally enabled the operation of the stable community resource clinic that we have needed for many many years. We all know the history of no or sporadic funding, and partnership attempts that did not work out. Our OIHD is part of a complex system, including the hospital closest to us, Island Hospital in Anacortes, our fire/EMS resource, and other community resources.
If an individual is fortunate enough to have the time and money to go off island on regular basis for medical care, then he/she is lucky indeed, and the exception, rather than the rule, regarding Orcas residents. Most working individuals and families with children do not have that time or money luxury.
So the question was asked, why should I fund YOUR doctors office? In other words, what’s in it for me to pay money for something I don’t directly use?
The answer, of course is to be a positively participating member of the community, helping to make it better. We all pay taxes to fund resources we may not use, such as the library we don’t go to, the parks and recreation facilities we don’t use, the fire district that has not had to respond to us, the county roads we never drive on, the schools our children don’t go to, etc.
You may as well ask why should I fund the county road that YOUR driveway is off of because i’ve never traveled to that area of the island, don’t want to, and will never use that road? Refer to the previous paragraph for the answer to this question.
Our hospital district commissioners have worked very hard to bring stability to a critical community resource that historically had been in a tough position financially and operationally. I have no doubt they will continue to work hard to make this community resource even better.
Please join me in voting YES for the Levy Lid Lift, in support of a healthier community.
I was a Hospital District Commissioner at its founding and I can say with certainty that no commissioner ever proposed to have a 24/7 emergency clinic in our community. First, emergency medical care is provided by OIFR. Island Health Primary Care Clinic provides primary and urgent care which is very different. When the Hospital District came into existence, the clinic was managed by UW Medicine which was not willing to provide after-hours care. Fortunately, the physicians in the clinic did provide some after-hours care voluntarily. The District then contracted with Island Hospital (which is now Island Health) to manage the delivery of care at the clinic and they readily agreed to provide after-hours call coverage which continues today. It is unfortunate that some comments above suggest, inaccurately, that that District has made promises that were not kept.
The Orcas clinic is not in a funding crisis or levy lid cliff situation. It’s not going away whether this vote passes or fails. The current levy provides sufficient finding for the next four plus years, and the commissioners have funded a respectable reserve fund. That said, capital improvements and expansion of services would be very limited.
The levy comes at a time when Medicare and Medicaid funding (none of which goes to the clinic … it goes to Island Hospital) is almost certainly not going to increase and possibly could be substantially reduced. The state Democratic legislature’s budget proposals, both the House and Senate, propose allowable property tax increases for taxing districts, including rural hospitals/clinics, with 3% or possibly more (population increases) proposed. And of course, many citizens life savings are decreasing due to the beginning of Trump tariff war started this past week.
I personally don’t like the fact that the Orcas clinics profit and loss report with Island Hospital is under a non-disclosure agreement, as is the proposed new contract. That’s a taxpayer transparency issue. Why this might be useful for Orcas taxpayers to know is San Juan Island’s hospital district, with an actual hospital that has beds, trauma care, cancer services, and operates an assisted living facility, has a current property tax that is roughly equal to what the Orcas clinic would have if this proposed levy is approved. They get patient insurance reimbursements, and the assisted living facility is reportedly profitable. Not saying we could have or need a fully operating small hospital, but I would have liked the Orcas clinic commissioners, whom I think have managed the existing clinic well, to have had a robust public discussion and open financial transparency on what the Orcas taxpayers want and are willing to pay for in the next decade.
Good point, Mr. Dashiell. I was under the impression that the construction of Peace Island Hospital was funded by donations together with support by Peace Health.
I see substantial benefits for Island Health in the levy lift, which secures 10 year funding of the existing fee-for-service contract as well as a pipeline of patients to the IH specialist provider network. Like any organization, IH values predictability and stability.
I am also uncomfortable about the confidentiality agreement, although it is not unexpected. I would also like to know about the termination provisions in the new contract.
This is where we rely on the good judgment of our district commissioners. I have faith in them.
Art, may I suggest you go back and look at your own website. It states after hours care… and in a meeting in the first voting over 10 years ago, I asked directly
“Are we going to have 24/7 after hours care?
And
An absolute yes was given…
So there’s that but please feel free to back peddle…
Most political people do, when faced with promises not kept.