What is meant by “strengthening island health care?” From my general understanding, it means more Medicare and Medicaid providers and more services. When I grew up on Vashon, we had approximately 10,000 residents and two health care facilities. No imaging, no urgent care. We are surrounded by water, but also by two cities with excellent medical care very close by. I tried to find rural towns in Washington that currently have more health care options than we do, but was unable to do so.

The common solution to the “health care problem” on Vashon is not inter-office communication. The solution is a system where providers are paid enough to keep a roof over our heads. At my office, currently we are reimbursed 20 to 60 percent of what we bill to insurance, and in addition to that we write off approximately 30 percent of our services to patients who can not or do not pay their bills. Unfortunately, the health care system is beholden to insurance companies, and until that changes, not much else will.

Those of us in the health care business on Vashon work very hard to do so on incredibly thin margins. We love what we do, and we love striving to provide the best health care possible to our community. The independent medical practice is a vanishing breed in America. None of us would be here if we did not want to do the best for Vashon that we can.

If you want to strengthen island health care, call your representatives and urge them to increase Medicare reimbursements, regulate the insurance industry and move toward a single payer system. We live in a capitalist society, and that includes health care. Although I disagree, we do not have a system that requires that anyone provide or receive health care services. Ultimately, there is no requirement of any sort for any health care facility to exist on Vashon at all.

Those issues, and of course the latest Miley Cyrus album, are what we really talk about in our inter-office communications.

— Kelly Wright