Healy Accuses Democrats of Lying

So while Rell has tied up bonding, dithers over federal stimulus funding and has created jobs, the state Republican chairman, Chris Healy accuses Democrats over lying about Life Star, a helicopter program run by Hartford Hospital. From a press release:

“This week, Senate President Don Williams and House Speaker Chris Donovan abdicated their duties as leaders of a branch of government that is require to perform one function – passage of an operating budget for Connecticut,” said Healy. “Over the last three months they have put their political interests first while an $8 billion deficit grows interest and our economy withers. It is time for them to grow up and act.”

Healy noted Tuesday both Donovan and Williams claimed they were making progress with Gov.� Rell and could complete a budget by August 27th. Then, a day later, Williams held a bizarre press conference where he claimed the Governor’s budget would eliminate $1.3 million that paid for the Life Star helicopter service for critical medical needs.

It is common knowledge that the Democrats offered that cut in closed-door negotiations, saying private insurance or other non-government subsidies would pay for the service.

“To imply that Life Star would be grounded after they agreed to another private funding source is scurrilous,” said Healy. “Sen. Williams should apologize for a scare tactic that serves no purpose and shows him and his party to be petty hypocrites at a critical time.”

In the dueling press release spin we have one from the Democratic Legislature:

If Connecticut’s budget impasse isn’t solved soon, the stop-gap measures keeping the LIFE STAR medical transport program in operation could be affected. That was the message from emergency room physicians at a news conference on Wednesday at the Legislative Office Building in Hartford. The doctors were joined by Senator Rep. Elizabeth B. Ritter (D-Montville/Waterford), and a Coventry man who credits Life Star with saving his life.

Gov. Rell has eliminated all state funding for LIFE STAR in her budget allotments for the months of July and August. Hartford Hospital has absorbed the costs in order to maintain the program but this stop-gap measure is not sustainable, especially when the hospital’s next fiscal year begins on October 1st.

“Gov. Rell’s decision to eliminate all state funding for the program has put LIFE STAR on life support,” said Senator Williams. “If there is no budget agreement soon, and Gov. Rell continues to deny state funding for LIFE STAR, public safety could suffer. Democrats believe LIFE STAR is an example of a core government service that should be supported, even if it means asking the state’s wealthiest residents to pay a little more.”

Gov. Rell’s decision to zero out state funding for LIFE STAR is consistent with her proposed budget, which eliminates the $1.39 million subsidy the state provides to Hartford Hospital to operate the LIFE STAR program, which includes a helicopter at Backus and one at Hartford Hospital. LIFE STAR is the only licensed air medical transport program in Connecticut.

“In the science of emergency medical treatment there is irrefutable evidence that response time dictates the impact of catastrophic injury; less elapsed time yields better outcomes, that’s all there is to it,” Senator Stillman said. “The LIFE STAR program routinely saves lives and must never be considered an extravagance, because the next accident victim to be transported could be a loved one of yours or mine.”

So while Connecticut limps along with no budget, no economic stimulation, no job creation, the main focus is on a helicopter medical transport program and no one seems to paying attention to the facts. Fortunately the NY Times provides us was some key details:

Governor Rell has suggested slashing $1.4 million to Life Star, or roughly 20 percent of its budget, which would mean grounding one of its two helicopters.

And how much is the program costing Hartford hospital? $7 million according to the NYT.

Such a cut to the program’s $7 million yearly budget would mean serving 40 percent fewer patients and stopping most emergency transports that are the farthest from Hartford, said Dr. Kenneth Robinson, director of Hartford Hospital’s emergency department.

Jeffrey R. Beckham, a spokesman for the state Office of Policy and Management, said his office had to look at priorities this year. He said Life Star was run by a private hospital with other sources of income.

“We’re saying we are not in the position to spend the taxpayers’ money to provide that extra,” Mr. Beckham said. “This is an extraordinary year for our state budget. We are coping with a drastic falloff in revenue. We have had to make some difficult decisions.”

Since it began in 1985, Life Star has transported 23,000 patients, flying between 1,100 and 1,200 patients per year. The medically equipped helicopters can be called by either emergency medical workers at a scene or a hospital that needs a patient transported to another hospital. No call is turned down unless weather conditions do not permit flight.
The service started with only one helicopter; 10 years ago, a second helicopter was added and stationed at the William W. Backus Hospital in Norwich to make the service more accessible to the fast-growing southern part of the state. That way, a helicopter is 20 minutes from anywhere in the state, hospital officials said. If the hospital has to ground one of the helicopters, Mr. Kinsella said, it would probably be the one stationed in Norwich.

So one helicopter is based in Hartford, and another is based in Norwich. And they say a picture is worth a thousand words.