Cheers & Jeers
Jeers: Health outcomes tend to be worse in rural communities than in urban areas, and certainly part of the reason for this is spotty access to health care services. A March of Dimes report last year identified Greene County as one of six counties in Pennsylvania that could be classified as a maternal health desert, and a hearing last week before the Center for Rural Pennsylvania highlighted additional issues in rural health care across the commonwealth. According to the Pennsylvania Capital-Star, members of the bipartisan legislative agency were told by experts and professionals working in the field that rural hospitals in the commonwealth are having a hard time with recruiting and retaining doctors, nurses and other health care providers. They are also struggling financially, fueled in part by low Medicare and Medicaid reimbursement rates. Jeannine McMillan of the Center for Population Health, a nonprofit that serves Somerset and Cambria counties, said there was a lack of both mental health providers and primary care physicians in those communities. Reforming the system and getting resources to rural communities for health care should be high atop the priority list of legislators and Gov. Josh Shapiro.
Cheers: Good news has come for Pennsylvania residents who struggle to pay their property taxes with the expansion of the property tax and rent rebate program. The programs lends a hand to state residents who are over age 65, widows or widowers over age 50 and anyone over age 18 with disabilities. Adjusting income limits that were last set in 2006, it moves the maximum rebate from $650 to $1,000, increases the income cap for homeowners and renters to $45,000 per year and ties the cap to Social Security cost-of-living increases. Gov. Josh Shapiro signed the law in Scranton after it was approved by the House and Senate. According to the Shapiro administration, 3,300 additional Fayette County residents will benefit as a result of the expansion, as will 600 Greene County residents and 3,200 individuals living in Washington County. Gaylene Macuska, a Scranton resident, explained that expanding the maximum rebate by $350 “might not seem like a whole lot of money to you, but for thousands of older Pennsylvanians, it’s a lifeline that helps pay the bills, and I know that to be true.”
Jeers: The presidential campaign of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has lately been struggling, and many commentators have suggested that part of the problem has been DeSantis himself. The Republican has made some strategic blunders, but on the campaign trail he has reportedly displayed a personality that might be described as off-putting. He has shown none of the sunny optimism of a Ronald Reagan or the one-on-one retail skills of a Bill Clinton. DeSantis’ apparent problems with saying the right thing and striking the right tone came to the fore last week when he suggested that if he gets the keys to 1600 Pennsylvania Ave., in January 2025, one of his first tasks would be to “start slitting throats” in the federal bureaucracy. DeSantis was probably trying to swagger like a tough guy, or grab some attention in an environment dominated by former President Trump. But rather than seeming like John Wayne with his remark, DeSantis came off more like Freddy Krueger.