ASSESSING LOCAL HEALTH NEEDS

Health-care reform was a big national issues just a few short months ago, but the politically charged efforts in Washington to deal with this important issue pretty much self-destructed when there was big push to create a government-controlled system run by medicrats in the nation's capital.

But reform is happening anyway, thanks in large part to the pressures of competition among innovative health-care providers as well as efforts by business and industry to bring the cost of employee coverage under control.

One effort to make sure health-care planning is orderly and effective in Cape Girardeau County has started with a community health assessment. The Healthy Community Committee includes representatives from the Community Caring Council, Chamber of Commerce, medical society, county health center, the hospitals and Southeast Missouri State University.

An educational meeting about the process is scheduled for 6 p.m. Nov. 14 at the Salvation Army building on Sprigg Street in Cape Girardeau. Along the way, the committee will look at what health service are available, which ones might be combined for greater efficiency and what services are lacking and need to be developed for this area.

If this project succeeds, health-care reform will at least enjoy one major benefit of such a community effort: local control. How the medical needs of area residents are met is a decision that can be made much more effectively by local folks than bureaucrats in Washington.