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OPINION

William F. Lucey III, publisher

Sheila Mullowney, executive editor
Gary Ruff, opinion page editor
Our view represents the opinion of the editorial board, above

FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 12, 2016  PAGE A6

GUEST VIEW

Rhode Island
needs to build
healthy future
By Dr. Neal Galinko

Robert Ariail | The State (Columbia, S.C.)

READERS LETTERS

Governor is right to boost state funding for disabilities services

Gov. Gina Raimondos proposal to signicantly increase state funding for support services for people with developmental disabilities in the current budget
and for scal 2017 deserves the support
of our citizens and our legislature.
Over the past eight years, support
funding for people with developmental
disabilities has been cut by $26,951,095
more than 20 percent while the
number of people needing those services increased by over 300 people. During that same time period, Massachusetts has increased funding to providers
by 2 percent and Connecticut by 1 percent. The governor has stepped up and is
taking action to provide more adequate
funding.
The governor is proposing $11.3 million in the current budget and an additional $12.2 million in the next budget,
beginning in July. Her proposal will
help to address the underfunding of current services, to be in compliance with
the 2014 Department of Justice consent
decree requiring the state to support
more integrated employment and day
activities, and to support an increasing
caseload. The caseload ratio of Rhode

Island private providers to participants

stands at 1:82, while Connecticut is at
1:50 and Massachusetts at 1:60.
Her proposal also directed $5.1 million of that funding to assist the employees of those private providers. In 2013,
the state Department of Behavioral
Healthcare, Developmental Disabilities and Hospitals acknowledged that
the unfunded differential between the
cost of mandated services and the allowable billable rate paid was 21 percent.
Our direct-service providers have had
virtually stagnant salaries for years.
The Rhode Island average private-provider entry wage is $10 an hour. The
U.S. national poverty level is dened as
$11.08 an hour. The governors proposal
will allow private providers to increase
wages and to decrease the turnover rate,
attracting more highly skilled workers
to support our most vulnerable citizens.
The governor and BHDDH Director Maria Montanaro are developing
plans to decrease the cost of residential services by moving residents from
group homes to shared living arrangements. This part of the plan is the most
controversial. Both the governor and

School isnt the same without our library

I want the Forest Avenue School
library to open because its important
for kids to read.
My school library has not been open
since Mr. Sisson [the former librarian] retired last summer. I like to go to
the library because I can usually nd a
book thats good for me or interests me.
Mr. Sisson used to help us nd books we
were interested in. It makes me really
sad and angry to hear that the superintendent isnt going to hire a new librarian and that we cant use our library. I
dont want to wait until high school to be
able to go to the school library.
Last year we got a lot of new books
[through the generosity of the Military
Spouses of Newport, Middletown Educational Collaborative, Middletown Public

Library and Feinstein Foundation].

But no one can read those new books
because our library is closed. Im really
interested in animal books this year and
I bet theres tons of new animal books. I
also like science and history and ction
books.
I have lots of books at home, but I
feel bad for kids who dont have books
and cant use our library. I love reading. I like how it takes you on adventures. Every kid should have a chance
to choose books they like at the school
library.
I hope they hire a new person to run
our library and that it can open again
soon.

Zachary Wallace, age 8, Forest Avenue

Elementary School, Middletown

the director have stated clearly that the

moves would be voluntary. That is critical to most of this population, for whom
the stability of long-established living
arrangements with friends and caregivers is so important.
It is important to note that residential
and day services are provided by both
state publicly operated providers and a
network of private providers licensed
and funded by BHDDH at fee-for-service
rates. The 2011 cost for providing those
services was $153,250 per person when
provided by state-operated providers.
The funding level for private providers
was $55,143 per person.
The Paul V. Sherlock Center for Disabilities has developed A Prole of the
RI Developmental Disabilities Service
System with all of the above information and more. I encourage our legislators and concerned citizens to read this
simple, well-presented document.

Barbara Burns, Middletown

The writer is a member of the James L.
Maher Center board of directors and
chairwoman of the board of Special
Olympics Rhode Island.

Dr. Connells patients

were truly fortunate
I ditto the words of Ken Dooley
of Newport (Dr. William Connell showed true dedication to his
patients, Readers Letters, Feb. 9).
Bill was not only my doctor, but also a
dear friend and one of my surrogate
children.
His quiet, calm manner made one
feel it unnecessary to go home and
take ones medication.
He became a great asset to us when
he joined the staff of doctors at the
Audrain Building years ago.
To those of us who were his
patients, realize how blessed you were
to have been.

Dolores Houston, Middletown

In an annual checkup of
our nations health, Rhode
Islands overall health ranked
No. 14 among the 50 states in
2015. As a state, we do exceptionally well from a policy
standpoint, but still need to
improve in many areas. Those
ndings come from United
Health Foundations Americas Health Rankings Annual
Report, which has been measuring national and state
health for just over a quarter
of a century.
As the medical director
for UnitedHealthcare of New
England, I always look forward to this annual report
because it offers an overview
of where we stand in health
both as a nation and relative
to our peer states. The report
provides a reection of Rhode
Islands health that is at once
sobering and encouraging.
Rhode Islands rankings in
this years report highlight
a number of bright spots.
According to the report, the
immunization rate among
Rhode Island adolescents is
the highest in the country. The
state ranks in the top 10 in
public health funding and well
above average in its percentage of insured residents and
availability of primary-care
physicians.
However, that being said,
there is still work to be done
in Rhode Island and across
the country.
Measuring and monitoring
our nations health has never
been more important, and the
results of this years Americas Health Rankings Annual
Report show how far weve
come in the past 26 years
and what areas of health we
still need to improve.
This years data show that
as a nation, Americans are
smoking less and living less
sedentary lifestyles. However,

our country is facing complex health challenges that

threaten Americans health
and quality of life. Obesity
and diabetes are at all-time
highs, and rates of drug
deaths including including
illegal and prescription drug
abuse and children living
in poverty are on the rise.
Understanding trends in
health and wellness makes it
clear where we need to focus
our resources and attention.
The rate of obesity, drug use
and excessive drinking in
Rhode Island remains too
high. The disparity in health
status by education level in
Rhode Island or the difference in reports of good
or excellent health between
adults with a high school education and those without is
more extreme than that of the
national average.
In 2016, Americas Health
Rankings will publish new
reports that will enable us
to track these challenges
more closely, so they can be
addressed more effectively.
These include new reports
on the health of select populations such as mothers and
children, and our nations
veterans, as well as spotlight reports on key publichealth topics. The goal is to
offer more information to
help improve public health
information that can be used
to continue making the great
improvements weve seen
here in Rhode Island.
When it comes to the future
of Rhode Islands health, and
Americas health, we are all
in it together. Lets commit
now to making the changes
necessary to ensure that we
build a healthier tomorrow,
today.

Dr. Neal Galinko, M.D., is

the senior medical director
for UnitedHealthcare of New
England.

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Sanders and Trump show the power of magic

The New Hampshire results have
solidied the reigning cliche that
the 2016 campaign is an anti-establishment revolt of
both the left and
the right. Largely
overlooked, however, is the role
played in setting the national
mood by the sevenyear legacy of the
Obama presidency.
Yes, you hear
constant denunciations of institutions, parties, leaders, donors, lobbyists, inuence peddlers. But the starting point of the
bipartisan critique is the social, economic and geopolitical wreckage all
around us. Bernie Sanders is careful never to blame Obama directly,
but his description of the America
Obama leaves behind is devastating
a wasteland of stagnant wages,
rising inequality, a sinking middle
class, young people crushed by debt,
the American Dream dying.
Take away the Brooklyn accent
and the Larry David mannerisms
and you would have thought you
were listening to a Republican candidate. After all, whos been in charge
for the past seven years?
Donald Trump is even more colorful in describing the current mess
and more direct in attributing it to
the countrys leadership most
pungently, its stupidity and incompetence. Both candidates are not just

Jeff Stahler | Universal Uclick

anti-establishment but anti-status

quo. The revolt is as much about the
Obama legacy as it is about institutions.
Look at New Hampshire. Hillary
Clinton had made a strategic decision, as highlighted in the debates,
to wrap herself in the mantle of the
Obama presidency. Big mistake. She
lost New Hampshire by three touchdowns.
Beyond railing against the wreckage, the other commonality between
the two big New Hampshire winners
is in the nature of the cure they offer.

Let the others propose carefully budgeted ve-point plans. Sanders and
Trump offer magic.
Take Sanders New Hampshire
victory speech. It promised the
moon: college education, free; universal health care, free; world peace,
also free because we wont be the
policeman of the world (mythical Sunni armies will presumably
be doing that for us). Plus a guaranteed $15 minimum wage. All to be
achieved by taxing the rich. Who can
be against a speculation tax (whatever that means)?

So with Trump. Leave it to him.

Jobs will ow back in a rush from
China, from Japan, from Mexico,
from everywhere. Universal health
care, with Obamacare replaced
by something terric. Veterans
nally taken care of. Drugs stopped
cold at the border. Indeed, an end to
drug addiction itself. Victory upon
victory of every kind.
How? That question never comes
up anymore. No one expects an
answer. His will be done, on earth if
not yet in heaven. Yes, people love
Trumps contempt for the establishment which as far as I can tell
means anything not Trump but
what is truly thrilling is the promise of a near-biblical restoration, as
painless as Sanders.
In truth, Trump and Sanders are
soaring not just by defying the establishment, but by defying logic and
history. Sanders magic potion is
socialism; Trumps is Trump.
The young Democrats swooning
for Sanders appear unfamiliar with
socialisms century-long career, a
dismal tale of ruination from Russia to Cuba to Venezuela. Indeed, are
they even aware that Chinas greatest reduction in poverty in human
history correlates precisely with
the degree to which it has given up
socialism?
Trumps magic is toughness
toughness in a world of losers. The
power and will of the caudillo will
make everything right.
Apart from the fact that

strongman rule contradicts the

American constitutional tradition
of limited and constrained government, caudillo populism simply
doesnt work. It accounts in a large
part for the relative backwardness
of Africa and Latin America. In 1900,
Argentina had a per-capita income
fully 70 percent of ours. After a 20th
century wallowing in Peronism and
its imitators, Argentina is a basket
case, its per-capita income now 23
percent of ours.
There certainly is a crisis of condence in the countrys institutions.
But thats hardly new. The current
run of endemic distrust began with
Vietnam and Watergate. Yet not in
our lifetimes have the left and right
populism of the Sanders and Trump
variety enjoyed such massive support.
The added factor is the Obama
effect, the depressed and anxious
mood of a nation experiencing its
worst economic recovery since
World War II and watching its power
and inuence abroad decline amid a
willed global retreat.
The result is a politics of high
fantasy. Things cant get any worse,
we hear, so why not shake things up
to their foundation? Anyone who
thinks things cant get any worse
knows nothing. And risks everything.

Charles Krauthammer is a Washington Post columnist. Send him email

at letters@charleskrauthammer.com.