LETTERS: MERGER MAKES SENSE FOR FARMERS

To the editor:

I would like to express my views concerning the proposed merger of our two community-based hospitals.

First of all, good health care that is close by is an absolute necessity for farmers. Also, due to the competitive nature of farming, it is important that health care be favorably priced. We all know that we could not compete on price with the smaller farms and lesser equipment that we had 30-some years ago, and neither can the hospitals compete against the major hospital organizations in St. Louis and Memphis without their being allowed to combine facilities and services in order to reduce their costs.

One this is certain: Costs for farmers will not go down if the hospitals are not allowed to merge. The opportunity is great for reduced costs is the merger is completed and the administrators, physicians and governing boards are allowed to attack excess services. It is my belief that the farm community needs to support this merger. Just as we would not go back to the farming economics of the early 1950s, neither can health care continue to provide good services and low costs without real economies of scale.

NORMAN H. WEISS, Retired Executive Director

Agriculture Stabilization and Conservation Service

Cape Girardeau