Valley bacon brings cheers and jeers
| Monday, Nov 09 2009 06:19 PM
Last Updated Monday, Nov 09 2009 06:43 PM
Two Central Valley Blue Dogs, Jim Costa and Dennis Cardoza, may bring home some serious bacon.
The congressmen snagged $500 million they want for a medical school at UC Merced, among other things, before agreeing Saturday to support a House bill that proposes a major federal overhaul of health care.
Costa, the Fresno Democrat, and his Merced colleague negotiated hard for two items eventually inserted into HR 3962:
* $100 million a year, in fiscal years 2011-2015, to start a medical school, which could include a residency program in Fresno that might expand to Bakersfield and other Valley locales;
* A pilot program meant to lure more health care professionals to the Valley.
"This is our ask," Costa spokesman Bret Rumbeck said of the bill sections and the joint negotiations by Costa and Cardoza.
President Barack Obama was said to have visited uncommitted Dems Saturday before the vote, but he didn't call or meet with Costa, Rumbeck said.
Steve Schilling, chief executive of Bakersfield-based Clinica Sierra Vista, a nonprofit chain of community health centers with locations in Kern, Inyo and Fresno counties, has served on Costa's health care advisory group in recent months and last week helped a Costa staffer craft language for the pilot program.
"It will benefit Bakersfield," Schilling said of impacts from the medical school and pilot program.
A med school in the San Joaquin Valley would allow us to "generate our own clinicians" who will be "drawn from the Valley, trained in the Valley" and ultimately practice here, he said.
A "listening group" with members from several nearby counties -- Schilling is on the Kern County committee -- has been working with UC Merced officials about expanding any residency program to include stints at locations around the Valley. They had a conference call Monday and will meet in Bakersfield later this month.
The pilot program would add more incentives to an existing federal program that brings doctors, dentists, nurse practitioners and others to areas where such professionals are scarce.
Currently, health professionals can serve in designated "shortage areas" to pay off med school costs and loans.
Additional incentives could draw doctors to places with extreme need. The status doesn't yet have an official definition but would include areas such as Arvin, east Bakersfield, the Kern River Valley and Frazier Park that attract few primary care professionals, Schilling said.
Bakersfield's Republican congressman, Kevin McCarthy, questioned the benefit of Costa and Cardoza's additions.
"That is a wrong approach," McCarthy said, "to reform (the country's) health care for UC Merced."
McCarthy compared the move to impacting one-sixth of the nation's economy for something relatively small that could be won on its own merits another time.
In addition, the language doesn't specify the $500 million will go to UC Merced and would require grant allocations that could later be denied even if the item makes it into the final version of the bill, McCarthy said.
Like all but one of his fellow House Republican colleagues, McCarthy voted against the bill, which has since gone to the Senate.
Conservative politicians and groups roundly criticized the legislation Monday.
Virginia-based Americans for Limited Government, for example, sent out a press release condemning Costa: "Congressman Costa, who voted for this abomination, has signed a political suicide pact for which he will be held accountable," the group's release said.
McCarthy, who is leading his party's congressional recruitment efforts, noted Costa and Cardoza's seats are the "most viable seats throughout the Valley" for the GOP to win.
Rumbeck, the Costa staffer, agreed the bill does not name UC Merced but said the congressmen aren't finished.
"They will continue this fight as negotiations for health care go forward," he said.
Costa's press release sent Saturday indicated his support depends on the funding.
"I will reserve the option to oppose the final version of the bill if cost containment and Valley health care needs are not fully met."
