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August 11, 1982 - Image 13

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Michigan Daily, 1982-08-11

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The Michigan Doily-Wednesday, August 11, 1982-Page 13
Governors reject
resolution on
balanced budget

AFTON, Okla. (UPI)- The nation's
governors narrowly rejected a
resolution yesterday calling for a con-
stitutional amendment to require a
balanced federal budget after one
member said it would destroy the
states.
Winding up their three-day conferen-
ce at a lakeside resort, the National
Governors' Association voted 26-10 for
the amendment, short of the three-
fourths majority the group's rules
require for items placed on the agenda
at the last minute.
EVERY governor who spoke during
the often sharp debate agreed a balan-
ced budget is necessary to cure the
nation's economic woes, but opponents
said the first thing that would happen
under a constitutional amendment
would be a cut in aid to the states.
Wisconsin's Republican Gov. Lee
Dreyfus called it an "anti-economic-
suicide clause in our Constitution," but
its chief opponent, Democrat Jay
Rockefeller of West Virginia said it
would lead to "the most total
devastation of human services" and
rapid "annihilation of the states."
Earlier, President Reagan won a vic-
tory of sorts when the governors backed
away from a threat to circumvent the
White House and go directly to
Congress with their own plan for new
federalism.
SIX MONTHS of negotiation between
Reagan and the governors on his plan,

for sending most federal' programs
back to the states has produced a
stalemate.
Vermont's Gov. Richard Snelling,
outgoing association chairman, after
two days of negotiations with presiden-
tial aide Rich Williamson, backed off
his plan to talk directly with Congress.
Williamson convinced the governors
Reagan is their strongest ally in the
battle for more power.
The governors voted to draw up their
own plan independently of the White
House and have it ready for their winter
meeting in January, but also agreed to
continue negotiations with the ad-
ministration.
WILLIAMSON said that change in-
dicates the governors have "an ap-"
preciation that to get Congress to em-
brace this, you've got to have bipar-
tisan support and the president's
backing."
"We are retaining our negotiating
position with the president," said Utah
Gov. Scott Matheson, a Democrat, the
new chairman of the conference.
The budget-balancing amendment
was proposed at the last minute. Draf-
ted by Arizona Gov. Bruce Babbitt, a
Democrat, and Tennessee Gov. Lamar
Alexander, a Republican, it proposed
requiring a vote of 60 percent of both
House and Senate for the Congress to
pass any expenditure that took the
budget out of balance except in case of
war.

Doily photo by MARK GINDIN
Oh "no you don't
Construction workers make absolutely sure their equipment cannot be pilfered
when they leave at the end of the day. Only a really serious thief could abscond
with what is suspended by a crane 40 feet in the air.

American health care needs overhauling
(Contined from Page 9) enterprise - the law of supply and
He says patients never wait more demand. Studies show that as the sup-
than 30 minutes for their appointments, ply of doctors has increased, medical
leaving by a door away from the waiting ae costa have continued to climb, defying
'The great majority of people in medicine are the logic of competition.
may be on their way into the operating hard-working, interested in their fellow man ... Simon's consulting firm, Good Health
AFTER SCare Management, Inc. consisted of
AFTER SURGERY, patients-are but we have really not stayed on top of this simple Simons, an architect, and a health
given nutritional advice and exercise th called ' planner. A brochure said the three were
instructions in rooms intended for those g marketing. dedicated to "providing more
purposes. -Dr. John Simons, medical delivery at a lower cost to the
If they require a night of observation, surgeon patient."
they are put in adjoining lodgings not pl ic One year after Good Health Care
much different from the rooms in the Management was formed, Simons
luxurious resorts of nearby Phoenix abandoned it. The medical profession
and Scottsdale. wasn't listening.
"Obviously, I have the advantage of The average cost of a semiprivate cover hospitalization costs usually don't "Our problem was that whenever we
not being all things to all people," room in-a U.S. hospital in 1981 was $142 reimburse patients for treatment in a did something that could be construed
Simons said. "I'm not a complete a day, but Simons said routine tests ac- doctor's office, but Simons said that as infringing on the practice qf
health care delivery system." Never- companying a day in the hospital can many of his patients prefer to see him medicine - that's where we ran into
theless, he said his concept of ap- push the cost to as much as $600. rather than go to the local hospital, trouble," Simons said.
propriate design - matching the Operating room fees at nearby Scot- even if it means paying for their care Simons and his colleagues would say,
facilities to the patients' needs - could tsdale Memorial Hospital, he said, are themselves. for example, that doctors would all
make hospitals more efficient. $187 and up. His operating room charge Simons became so involved in trying have to store their X-rays in one room
"MOST HOSPITALS are built so that is never over $100. to improve the delivery of American for efficiency. That didn't sit well. That
every patient in there could have a car- SOME PHOENIX plastic surgeons medicine in 1973 that he decided to was interfering with the freedom to
diac arrest at two in the afternoon," as try to lower costs by sending patients to leave the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, practice medicine,' Simons said.
unlikely as that may be - and the a privately run halfway house for Minn. - where he was chief of plastic He admits that his efforts have not
hospital could handle it. "How many plastic surgery patients, where the surgery - and form a consulting firm revolutionized health care, but he says
hospital beds are built with oxygen that patients are watched by nurses. The to show doctors and hospital ad- they are a step in the right direction.
is never turned on?" charge is $125 per night, Simons said. ministrators how to deliver medical "I think we've been able to provide
Simons says his fees are about the His charge for an overnight stay is care efficiently and relatively inexpen- some things that can help the patient
same as those of other Phoenix-area nothing. It's included in his fee, as are sively. physically and mentally and we can
plastic surgeons. He saves his patients an unlimited number of post-operative THE PREMISE was that the still be competitive - reasonable in
money principally by keeping them out visits. medical profession has not learned to price."
of the hospital. Health insurance policies which live with the governing law of private For Simons, that's the bottom line.

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