A Doctor Comments on Midwives

Posted on by Sarah Brodsky

In the Southeast Missourian, Dr. Eric G. Morton describes his concerns with the midwife legislation:

This bill is not about freedom. It is about looking at a small special-interest group that wants to practice medicine without a license or malpractice insurance.

Dr. Morton responds to midwives and their supporters who were quoted in the paper as saying that it’s hard to get to know doctors and that midwives are more caring. He assures readers that he is in fact quite caring; he calls women by their first names, shakes hands with them, etc. He writes:

I believe most physicians are compassionate and caring and provide an adequate birth experience. They get to know their patients on a personal level.

I’m sure he’s right that most physicians are just as caring as midwives. But that’s not the point of the midwife legislation. Women should be free to choose a midwife instead of a physician, even if any "objective" third party would consider the physician to be ten times as caring and knowledgable. The patient is the one who ultimately needs to be satisfied with the quality of her medical care, so she should make the decision.

Somebody is seeing the light …

Posted on by David Stokes

Tucked into an article about plans to turn part of the Gateway Mall into a sculpture garden is a very interesting quote from Alderwoman Phyllis Young, who represents Soulard and downtown. The plan is awesome, by the way, but that is not the purpose of this post. This quote is:

Young, whose ward includes the mall, said she hopes the pact will set a precedent for private agencies to help run city parks, while still offering public uses.

Sounds like a public-private partnership to me! Much more to come on this issue (PPPs, not the sculpture park, although I hope that succeeds, too) in the future from SMI.

A Bad Idea for Missouri HealthNet

Posted on by Sarah Brodsky

Here’s a bad idea that didn’t make it into the Missouri HealthNet bill — a "rewards debit card":

The idea was to give recipients rewards for healthy choices that could be used to purchase additional services. Shields points out that while the idea didn’t make it into the bill, it isn’t dead. He says the Department of Social Services could still consider the idea when it works on the details of MO Health Net.

If this debit card becomes part of the program, it will result in a lot of waste. First, most healthy choices are not easily monitered. How will the state know if someone chooses to exercise more or doesn’t smoke cigarettes? The debit card would encourage people to use more of the easily monitored services, such as exams or medical tests, in order to get rewards. That wouldn’t necessarily make anyone healthier, and it could eliminate the efficiency gains some people anticipate from the program.

Second, what’s healthy for one person might not be healthy for someone else. And there’s a lot of disagreement about which choices are ever healthy, as is evidenced by the proliferation of diets and exercise plans. Some people might just throw up their hands and conclude that everything is healthy. For example, you can find the American Heart Association seal on just about any food at a grocery store other than potato chips.

It’s a better idea to let people make their own choices, without rewards or punishments from the state. If people are responsible for some routine health care costs, such as through a health savings account, they’ll have an incentive to make the choices that are healthy for them.

Immigrants Want to Learn English

Posted on by Sarah Brodsky

KOMU reports on kids who are trying to learn English in Columbia, Missouri:

"He spends an hour a day in the ELL class, while that’s usually enough time, but because there are too many students in the class we feel he doesn’t have enough opportunities to speak up," Yun says.

Most parents, like the Kims, hire tutors to give their children extra speaking time, but communicating is just part of the challenge.

This is why we don’t need an English-language amendment to the state Constitution. Even short-term visitors want their kids to learn English. Foreign-born parents who are here to stay are even more adamant about the importance of English. The Pew Hispanic Center has found that 96 percent of foreign-born Hispanics consider "the goal of teaching English to the children of immigrant families" to be very important.

Immigrants aren’t trying to get the state to conduct business in foreign languages. They view interaction with Americans as a valuable opportunity to learn English.

I’m Thinking of a State …

Posted on by Sarah Brodsky

An op-ed in the Lake Sun Leader imagines a better Missouri:

Imagine businesses operating as responsible partners in making Missouri a leader, again, in areas such as research and development, in manufacturing, in education and not just in the service industries which pay the lowest wages with the fewest, if any, benefits.

Instead, one by one, Missouri manufacturers go overseas for cheap labor, including the pencil factory in Versailles.

The op-ed makes demands on so many fronts — taxes on businesses, health insurance, education ("Imagine that there is no brain drain from our universities") — that not only is the imagined state far from the current reality in Missouri, but it doesn’t describe anywhere else either. There are always trade-offs, and no state has a perfect record on all issues. You can’t burden businesses with high taxes to pay for everyone’s health care, then expect them to pour money into research and development at the same time. And when your entire population is educated at a state-of-the-art university, it won’t want to sit around making pencils in a factory.

Books are Burning

Posted on by Eric D. Dixon

The Post-Dispatch reports that a used book store owner in Kansas City, unable to unload his thousands of warehoused books, has taken to burning them:

Ranging from best-sellers such as Tom Clancy’s "The Hunt for Red October" and Tom Wolfe’s "Bonfire of the Vanities," to obscure titles like a bound report from the Fourth Pan-American Conference held in Buenos Aires in 1910 and a textbook on beginning Polish, the books won’t sell. Wayne said even local libraries and thrift stores have told him they’re full.

Last week, Wayne began putting them to the torch, tossing scores of books into a burning cauldron to protest what he sees as society’s diminishing support for the printed word.

"This is the funeral pyre for thought in America today," Wayne told spectators outside his bookstore as he lit the first batch of books.

The fire blazed for about 50 minutes before the Kansas City Fire Department put it out because Wayne didn’t have a burning permit.

Wayne said he will get a permit for next time. He said he envisions monthly bonfires until his supply — estimated at 20,000 books — is exhausted.

Now, I was raised in a family in which books were practically sacred. Whenever my dad lent a book to someone, he’d be sure to quip: "If there’s a fire, rescue the book first. Then go back for your family." He’s also fond of his T-shirt with the Erasmus quote: "When I get a little money, I buy books. And if there is any left over, I buy food." When I moved here to the St. Louis area in April, I brought more books with me than anything else, no matter how you measure it — weight, volume, mass, um … surface area. My car was loaded down with dead trees.

So this story cuts me to the core. This guy owns the books, so he can do with them what he wants, as far as I’m concerned, but I wish I could rescue them all. Although I’ve never had a pet, I think this must be what animal-lovers feel when they visit the pound and see all the animals waiting to be put down — wishing they could take them all home, where they’d be safe.

I think I need to buy more shelves.

We Have a Nominee for Worst Proposal of 2007…

Posted on by David Stokes

O’Fallon, MO, is seeking to annex the Busch Wildlife Area. This would put one of the state’s parkland and wildlife jewels under the zoning control of an aggressively expanding suburb. This is a truly horrible proposal. The city officials have stated that they have no intention of changing the use of the land, and I believe them, but their promises now could easily be changed by new leadership after future elections.  How could anyone even fathom giving control of this land over to a municipality instead of the State Department of Conservation?

I would feel better about the statement by O’Fallon Mayor Donna Morrow that she is opposed to this if she didn’t also say she was unaware it was being proposed in the first place. It seems the bureaucrats might have just a little too much power in O’Fallon. I have had the great pleasure of going to the Busch Wildlife Area. My friend, Willis Corbett (scroll down), took me out there to participate in a Pointer and Setter competition a few years back, which was two hours of the most wonderful horseback riding of my life.

The good news is that ideas this bad are usually stopped when common-sense Missourians realize what is being proposed. The Great Rivers Habitat Alliance, supported by the Busch family, is strongly opposed.  They have done incredible work over the past decade in St. Charles County. St. Charles County Councilman Joe Brazil, who represents the area, is also opposed, and states:

"There should be a state law prohibiting municipal governments from taking county or state parks of more than 100 acres."

The only thing he is wrong about is that the law should apply to parks of any size, not just 100 acres.  The State Department of Conservation is much better equipped and prepared to manage our park system than any local municipality. The land should remain unincorportated to best honor the gift of the Busch family.

Missouri … The State That Takes Your Property!

Posted on by Maurice Harris

In today’s St. Louis Business Journal, an article points out that Missouri is failing in pursuing comprehensive eminent domain reform. The Castle Coalition gave Missouri a D in its effort to stop eminent domain — especially government-sanctioned eminent domain on the local level:

House Bill 1944, effective last August, which specified that property
cannot be condemned "solely" for economic development and ends the
prior practice of letting private developers initiate condemnations on
their own behalf, continues to allow government agencies to take
private property for the use of other private parties for any other
justification. The new law "continues to let cities condemn whole
neighborhoods as ‘blighted’ based on vague, subjective factors,"
according to the report, such as "inadequate street layout," "unsafe
conditions" and "obsolete platting."

The weakness of HB 1944 was pointed out by Tim Lee and Shaida Dezfuli last year. Hopefully, this rating would put lawmakers on notice to pass tougher legislation when they convene in January for the regular session. Also, this should be a wake-up call for local residents in cities across the state who are concerned about protecting their own property. The state of Missouri should feel shamed for not standing for property owners in this state and leaving them at the mercy of developers!

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