Health Care Priorities

The recent vote to shut down the County Medical Services program will have disastrous effects on the health care services available to the poor in our county. Because I work in the medical field, I am very much aware of how many people will not have the means to vital medical care and treatment if this program is not rescued.

I think this situation very clearly illustrates a major flaw in our allocation of health care resources. A glance at the research budgets at UC San Diego, Scripps Clinic, Salk Institute and the many other medical research institutions in our county will reveal that literally billions of dollars are being spent in every conceivable aspect of research.

I realize that there are political, logistic and governmental obstacles to redirecting health care research funds into direct care in programs such as CMS. The bulk of research funding is federal, while the CMS and similar programs are at the state, county or local level. Yet the public needs to be aware of the tremendously disproportionate amount of money being spent on research as opposed to medical services. I think a shift in our priorities is called for.

BERYL M. SMITH, Vista