Scare quotes around “epidemic” because, once again, the common language is being abused. Epidemics are spread by germs – not choices made by people to put needles into arms or powder up noses. That said, this is typical when help is asked for by locals of the Feds. That “free” money is never free – first to the taxpayers and as we see here, all the rules and “strings attached” cost plenty, too – and result in LESS help than more – Union Leader (reformatted, emphasis mine)
Drug treatment beds: Reduced by order from Washington
In the midst of a heroin addiction epidemic in which Democrats, Republicans and substance abuse experts all agree that more treatment center beds are desperately needed, the federal government is forcing treatment centers in New Hampshire to reduce the number of available beds. Such is the logic of the federal bureaucracy.
And you expected otherwise? This is why I have said for years that local should stay local – the cost is too high. Yes, you can get the money, but any control you had for this local problem dissipates quickly. And in this case, the Feds go “bossy” (isn’t that the word that Hillary hates?)
As our reporter Mark Hayward showed in an eye-opening story on Sunday, to accept Medicaid and private insurance reimbursements under Obamacare, treatment centers must comply with a host of regulations that govern even the smallest details of a facility’s space. Rooms must be at least 160 square feet, for example. Headrest, a treatment facility in Lebanon, has rooms that are 155 square feet. Headrest uses a $100 stove, but the regulations require a $3,000 fire suppression system for it. “It’s been crazy,” Executive Director Suzanne Thistle said.
You expected otherwise? As a Budget Committee member in my hamlet, I kept warning others enamored of “free money” – that it is never free because that money demands that we spend money – and just like a
To comply with the regulations, Southeastern New Hampshire Services in Dover has already reduced the number of beds it offers. “It’s bureaucracy at its finest,” Heidi Moran, the center’s clinical services director, said. The tab for compliance will reach $500,000, she said. Serenity Place in Manchester will have to spend $1 million to comply with the regulations, and in the process it will have to reduce the number of beds.
Great – money to help actually hurts. Actually, it isn’t the money – its the one-size fits all solution that is applied by the Smart People from Government. I really DO hope that people see this and go “WHY does our money go to DC in the first place? With “solutions” like this, why aren’t our Smart People Politicians ranting at DC for this? Better yet, why haven’t they been screaming to keep NH money here in NH – just for situations like this? I can tell you why – it’s easy.
The Socialists (formerly known as Democrats (remember, the head of the Democrat National Committee can’t tell anyone the difference between the two), Liberals, and Progressives) are FOR Bigger and Further Away Government. They are in THRALL with Big Centralized Government. Remember – they think it is “efficient” to have only one level in DC – cut out all that middle part. Doesn’t hurt that it makes us at the bottom pretty much isolated from those making the decisions – rendered helpless on purpose and by design.
All according to that foreign political theory born in Germany – and totally antithetical to our own American roots and history.
Sadly, too many Republicans have been captured by it as well and those of us who rail against it are considered kooks, extremists, and out of the mainstream. That is, until this stupidity occurs and there is no comeback when we point out that local is better.
When business owners complain of the insane inflexibility of federal regulations, they are dismissed as greedy or selfish. Will New Hampshire’s nonprofit substance abuse centers be dismissed with the same condescending disregard? These regulations are a perfectly outrageous example of how government rules designed to enforce a bureaucratic ideal can hurt the very people they are intended to help. They must be changed. What politicians will be willing to make that happen?
You bet they will, as the bureaucracy can only lip service an “oops”. Never is there accountability that sticks (just look at the horrendous outcome of the EPA’s launching 3 million gallons of absolute toxic gold mine waste – the EPA head Gina McCarthy simply says “sorry”).
Live Free or Die – but our “leaders” outsource that to DC. Time to start yelling “Be responsible for ourselves” and that means not just control but financially as well. There is no control when DC shows up.
