newsobserver.com projects - mental health - Comments

Re: Physical health, not mental health

kook123456 — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 07:28:49 -0400

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Re: Dome Memo: Promises and counting

bnartist — Sat, 11 Jul 2009 05:34:57 -0400

It doesn't help when you claim the state wasted $635 million and the link substantiating the claim puts that number between $177 and $226 million. The fact that it's spread over three years is lost in the confusion. The Beaufort Observer explains it thus:

First, they looked at how much money could have been saved had the cost controls that should have been put in place which were ultimately installed had actually been in place from the beginning. That number came to $635 million, of which North Carolina's share was $226 million.

Then they looked at what would have happened had there been earlier detection and reaction once the soaring expenditures began. That number was $498 million, of which $177 million was state money.

The annualized "waste" is thus $59-$75 million at best. Also lost in the confusion is the fact that many Republicans voted for the Mental Health Reform bill that pushed these services in the direction of private providers. These Republicans included free market champion James Arthur Pope. Now Tom Fetzer & his Republicans want to claim there wasn't enough of the government red tape they constantly decry. Also forgotten is the fact that Fetzer was part of the Martin administration that "raised" taxes including the Highway Use Tax, another much abused political football. Fetzer is a professional spin doctor and McClatchy has been spun.

Re: Dome Memo: Promises and counting

TheNextCalifornia — Sat, 11 Jul 2009 01:11:44 -0400

Hhhhm, so bniolet, do you suggest that because the constituents are making less money and spending less money that the answer is for the government to take more money from them through taxation?

That doesn't sound like a formula for success in my book. We cut our household budgets and our personal spending, the government should do the same.

Re: Dome Memo: Promises and counting

bniolet — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 11:39:32 -0400

dahedgehog,

If you follow the link provided in the Dome Memo, you will see the following paragraph:

Revenue next year is expected to be more than $4 billion behind what it would have taken to keep funding programs and services at recent levels. Even measuring against this year's spending, which has been cut from what was approved in this year's budget, revenues are nearly $3 billion behind. Those figures do not account for approximately $1.3 billion in federal stimulus money, as the state historically has not calculated federal money in totaling up the general fund budget.

We wish there was a simple answer. But the fact is the size of the deficit depends on how you calculate it. Each side of this argument has their own way of crunching the numbers.

Re: Dome Memo: Promises and counting

dahedgehog — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 10:34:00 -0400

Meanwhile, Rep. David Lewis, a Dunn Republican, launched a campaign to show that the Democrats are using faulty math in describing a budget deficit.

This seems like a great opportunity for a reporter to step up and inform his or her readers! Are Democrats using faulty math? Is Rep. Lewis wrong? As a reader, I'm unable to make any sort of informed opinion from the reporting offered via this blog.

Given that this is an argument over math, there is presumably an objective answer. As a reporter, you should work to provide your readers that answer, and serve your primary function of informing your readers.

By presenting this issue in terms of he said/she said, you do nothing to better inform your readers. Instead, partisans leave here assuming that their opponents on the other side are lying. Nonpartisans just throw their hands up in the air in frustration. It's a lose-lose situation. But it's a lose-lose situation that could be rectified....with actual reporting!

Step up and be a reporter, bniolet! Your readers need you!

Re: New mental health post on hold

skeptical — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 14:46:14 -0400

Waiting to see who comes up with the biggest "donation" to Dumplin Perdue, I'm sure. Can't wait to see which political hack fills this position.

Re: Excess mental health costs: $226 m

kathy1958 — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 07:12:11 -0400

And who did Governor Perdue appoint to oversee dispensing the federal stimulus monies--why none other than Dempsey Benton the very same person who was in charge of DHHS during this financial debacle. Very comforting for the citizens of North Carolina.

Re: Cigarettes, booze for teachers, mental health

gordman — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 16:44:23 -0400

Although I am not a great fan of booze and cigarettes I think is quite unfair to raise taxes for paying teachers. A much more profitable thing would be drug legalization starting with marijuana. As far as I can see this would solve more problems at once.
Gordman, Alcohol Intervention

Re: Health Plan narrowly passes key vote

johnmayer76 — Sat, 18 Apr 2009 02:00:30 -0400

If you are uninsured and does not have insurance, you should check out the website http://UninsuredAmerica.blogspot.com - John Mayer, California

Re: Health Plan narrowly passes key vote

mcmillf — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 09:03:25 -0400

Totally absurd. You must rally together to investigate and re-organize the planning and administrative handling of state health insurance. This plan is unacceptable, overpriced and minimizes healthcare for selective groups. I am retired and cannot afford continued increases each year, while insurance coverage decreases. If you keep on, no one will want to work for the State. Freezing longevity, adding monthly premiums, and increasing premiums, co-pays and deductibles add to the budget of families. Many of these families are trying to put food on the table, pay power bills, cloth kids and buy medicines. We cannot afford to pay these outrageous prices. You are pricing your health plans out of business, and also out of state employment. Many families don't have a 2nd partner working for the state, and many of those spouses are unemployed. And the government wants us to spend money to boost the economy. RIGHT? No longer does the state offer incentives to recruit good hardworking employees. You get what you pay for too. Those incentives, affordable incentives, are what draws the better employees. Could be you're killing it. Please reconsider other ways to re-write this before it is too late for the current employees who have given dedicated years of service and for the younger employees who may be considering other lines of employment because they see no future in the STATE.

Re: Health Plan narrowly passes key vote

beachbum474 — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 21:04:11 -0400

So what will you do when you FIRE 700 TAX PAYERS from the State Government and the younger state employees who survive the onslaught get priced out of the health care plan and turn to private insurance? Are you counting on losing all that revenue going into the SHP in future years? How will that lost revenue be made up? Will you just raise the premiums and co pays again? THINK THINK THINK! Plan you know at least 3 or 4 moves ahead instead of getting stuck at the first move. I'm a state employee (if my bias has not given me away by now) and I am a young one with a family. I can not afford the SHP any longer and the state WILL be losing my premiums and co pays. I pay around ~$500 per month x 12 = ~$6000 per year lost revenue to the SHP from just 1 employee. On top of that because I am paid so little (college degree professional paid poverty wages), we qualify for state government programs which we will start taking advantage of. Now add that into your cost for your seemingly inability to plan.

We need this, folks

scharrison — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 11:19:16 -0400

Right now around half of the troops serving in Iraq and Afghanistan are various National Guard and Reserve components, and North Carolina is getting ready to send 3,200 more of our Citizen-Soldiers over there. These men and women hail from nearly every one of the State's 100 counties, meaning that when they return home after combat, most of them will be too far away from major military bases to seek treatment there.

I know many reading this don't really understand what TBI is or how it can affect someone, but you should take the time to learn more. If it goes undiagnosed and untreated, it often results in job loss, families breaking apart, substance abuse and even suicide. Yellow ribbons and parades are nice, but those things are small comfort when you can't sleep at night, you have difficulty solving problems that used to be a breeze, you're constantly dealing with headaches, bright lights and noises actually hurt, you're constantly tired, etc. If neither you nor the people around you know what's causing these things, you're headed for a fall.

After all these folks have sacrificed for us, we can't leave them to struggle with this on their own. The vast majority of veterans who call NC Office of Citizens Services CARE LINE are asking if they are eligible for Medicaid. The answer needs to be a resounding "yes".

Thanks, Grier. You are the man.

Re: Bill would help wounded soldiers

AquaMan — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 09:49:07 -0400

Thanks Grier. For more details on how we are 'Supporting The Troops'-- (Not) Aaron Glantz has an exellent book out called "The War Comes Home". Worth a read.

Re: What would Perdue cut?

ryanteaguebeckwith — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 14:09:25 -0400

Sorry about that.

— RTB

Re: What would Perdue cut?

tangoz — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 12:54:05 -0400

If Perdue's budget is the biggest ever, then she is not doing her job as Governor. When OUR taxpayer funded Spendulous bill runs out in two years we will be in a hyper-inflation economic mess with still over $2 billion shortfall. This is class Democratic politicians putting off for someone else to fix down the road. Won't out grandchildren be mad at us when they get this bill?