Times Reporter - Rep. Bill Johnson Advocates Overhauling Medicare to Save it From Insolvency

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By Jon Baker

During a visit Friday to Trinity Hospital Twin City, U.S. Rep. Bill Johnson, R-Marietta, discussed the need to overhaul the nation's Medicare system, which he said could be insolvent within 10 years.

"It's going to be bad for everybody," said Johnson, who sits on the House budget committee. "You hear this politicized a lot in the national media, but the truth is undeniable. The Medicare trustees are telling us there's not enough money to sustain the system.

"You've got 10,000 Baby Boomers per day, 70,000 this week, 3.5 million this year for the next 22 years going onto the Medicare system. You don't have enough people paying into the system to sustain the number of people that are going into the system. It is a big, big problem."

Rising health care costs are the biggest drivers of the U.S. national debt, he noted.

Johnson blamed mismanagement by government agencies for the situation.

Johnson advocated overhauling the system; restoring health care decisions to doctors and patients; and creating incentives for physicians to get better health outcomes to help lower costs.

The congressman came to Dennison at the invitation of Tuscarawas County Commissioner Chris Abbuhl to see the results of a recent $2.5 million renovation of Trinity Hospital Twin City. Abbuhl and Commissioner Kerry Metzger were also on the tour, which was led by Trinity CEO Joe Mitchell.

The Sisters of St. Francis in Sylvania, Ohio, purchased the bankrupt Twin City Hospital for $4.85 million in 2011 and renamed it Trinity Hospital Twin City. It is now a Catholic Critical Access Hospital.

In 2014, the organization began renovations to the original wing of the hospital, which is about 100 years old. The renovations included $1 million for a new sprinkler system and $1.5 million to improve the aesthetic appearance, Mitchell said.

Other improvements included limiting the number of entrances to the hospital to one to improve security and patient experience. Previously, there had been four to five entries, including one through the loading dock, he said. "People shouldn't have to come through the loading dock."

He told the congressman that Trinity has 25 physicians on staff, the majority of whom are directly employed by the hospital.

About one-third of Trinity patients are on Medicaid, he noted.

Mitchell showed Johnson some of the latest technology at the hospital, telling the congressman, "We have a lot of technology. You need that even in a rural hospital."

Johnson praised Trinity, saying that the hospital has technology not normally seen in rural hospitals.

At the conclusion of the tour, Johnson told Trinity officials, "Everything you've shown me today gives me optimism that you've got your eye on the right aspects of the ball."

Abbuhl thanked Johnson for coming, noting that decisions made in Washington have an impact on small hospitals like Trinity.

"That's why it was important to get you here today to be able to see the facility, what has been done, and what potentially could have been lost if the sisters hadn't stepped in," Abbuhl said.

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