To the Editor:

We are all one slip ion the ice, hitting a deer, or having a stroke, from needing skilled nursing care. This care can exhaust the best of pensions. Our best guarantee for the convenient local quality care, regardless of our ability to pay, is the Portage County Health Care Center.

For the price of a pizza, $24.48 per $100,000 of property value, we can afford the cost of the 9 percent overrun to keep our County Home open if we vote yes on the Nov. 6 referendum.

We have a surplus of assisted health care facilities, a shortage of skilled nursing facilities, and there is a world of difference in care. You would need to look at a 75 mile radius to find the same care, if you find it at all.

Private facilities have been known to cut staff, wages, quality of care, and reject the poorest who use Medicaid to pay for care to be profitable. We learned this year that privatizing is not an option because offers to do so were so abysmal. Residents can trust the County will care for them.

Securing a future for our needy and elderly, who have paid taxes, is a priority over a new courthouse and jail complex for lawbreakers. The County Home’s administrative staff do an amazing job controlling costs, performing operational efficiencies, and maintaining a five-star rating.

A NO vote could close the Portage County Health Care Center in as soon as a year. The County Home is an old gem to treasure and protect for the future.

Mary Ann Laszewski,
Stevens Point