That’s what San Mateo County Director of Public Health Programs John Conley said to explain his decision to reroute the mobile health van away from the South Coast. There just aren’t enough sick people down there to warrant the trip, he said.
As if that weren’t insult enough, he followed that bit of cold arithmetic with the assertion that the very lack of medical care south of Half Moon Bay – and the fact that so many patients speak Spanish – just makes providing critical public health service too darn difficult.
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Recently, SamTrans announced it was considering slashing bus service on the coast. You can expect the agency to blame ridership numbers when it does so. Do you imagine there are more riders on the coast or, say, Redwood City?
Similar calculus would doom the Coastside for all manner of government service. And it’s an alluring temptation. Who wouldn’t want some rational, fact-based method when it comes to cutting critical services?
If only it were that simple.
Transportation and food and health care are no less necessary in rural communities than in the suburbs. In fact, the very isolated nature of communities like San Gregorio and La Honda make such services all the more necessary since travel to commerce centers is challenging for shut-ins, those without cars and those too ill to get around.
Perhaps we should apply the math excuse in reverse. Why should Pescadero residents – who receive fewer Sheriff’s patrols, who are miles from any county-supported health facility – pay taxes commensurate with city folk? Why do they have to support patrols in North Fair Oaks? You want La Hondans to pay for county libraries? Why?
Done correctly, government is a human and a humane endeavor. Conley is wrong to suggest that health care be a paint-by-number affair. Someone should set him straight about that.
-- Clay Lambert
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