Headlines
1. Two on Calif. state parks panel ousted after opposing toll road
2. RI Gov. Carcieri wants court to overturn law against privatizing state workers
3. Medicare, Medicaid managed care gets scrutiny for fraud
4. The disadvan tage of privatizing Medicare
5. Toll-road ideas advance in AZ Senate
6. Study: Public hospitals: privatization and uncompensated care
7. NM State Univ. considering outsourcing bookstore operations
8. Louisiana parents must wait for tuition break
9. State autism education program flawed, Policy Matters Ohio says
10.SC: Private sewage systems debated


News Summaries
1. Two on Calif. state parks panel ousted after opposing toll road
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger either felt the need for “fresh legs” on the
state Park & Recreation Commission or was in the mood for political
payback.Whatever his true sentiments, his staff notified his
brother-in-law Bobby Shriver and actor Clint Eastwood on Monday that
they were no longer needed as state park commissioners. As
commissioners, the two men voted to oppose a 16-mile extension of state
Route 241 that would connect southern Orange County to Interstate 5 at
San Onofre. The toll road would cut across a nature reserve in Orange
County and the San Onofre State Beach, a site considered sacred by
American Indians and cherished by surfers and campers. San Diego Union Tribune
2. RI Gov. Carcieri wants court to overturn law against privatizing state workers
The Republican governor included sweeping plans in his 2008-09 state
budget to replace unionized janitors, food workers, prison counselors
and dental workers with nonunion contractors who would presumably earn
reduced salaries and benefits. Providence Journal
3. Medicare, Medicaid managed care gets scrutiny for fraud
As the government increases the private sector’s role in delivering
Medicare and Medicaid services, new kinds of fraud are cropping up that
are harder to spot, more complicated to prosecute and potentially more
harmful to patients. Now, regulators are belatedly ramping up scrutiny
of the managed-care industry, which has grown to cover more than 37
million state and federal beneficiaries. The Wall Street Journal (subscription)
4. The disadvantage of privatizing Medicare
The problem is these private plans are more costly than the traditional
Medicare program, they provide less care, and they threaten the long
term financial solvency of the Medicare program. As noted in a recent Des Moines Register
editorial, insurance companies are getting their pockets lined, while
enrollees in this program wind up paying more for less care. AFSME
5. Toll-road ideas advance in AZ Senate
Proposals that would pave the way for new toll roads in Arizona rolled
forward in the Legislature on Tuesday. Two bills that would allow
public agencies to work with private companies to finance, build and
maintain pay-as-you-go roads won tentative approval from the full
Senate. Lawmakers didn’t get around to voting on a related bill. The Arizona Republic
6. Study: Public hospitals: privatization and uncompensated care
Our analysis reveals that public hospitals that were privatized
provided significantly less uncompensated care before privatization
than did other public hospitals, both before and after privatization.
Source: K R Desai, C Van Deusen Lukas, and G J Young, Health Affairs, March/April 2000
7. NM State Univ. considering outsourcing bookstore operations
It bills itself as "Your University Bookstore — Money Spent Here Stays
Here!" But some members of the New Mexico State University community
are concerned that may not be the story for long. La Cruces Sun-News
8. Louisiana parents must wait for tuition break
A new tax break for parents of children in Louisiana private schools
and a smaller benefit for parents of public school students won’t have
an impact on their pocketbooks for at least two years. The Times-Picayune
9. State autism education program flawed, Policy Matters Ohio says
A fast-growing state program that gives parents of autistic children up
to $20,000 for private educational services lacks oversight and allows
providers to exclude children based on religion and other factors, says
Policy Matters Ohio. The Cleveland Plain Dealer
10. SC: Private sewage systems debated
As developers and municipalities look for ways to offer sewage
treatment in areas not served by utilities, Lowcountry planning
officials are trying to decide if, and when, private sewage treatment
systems should be allowed. On one side of the issue is the fear that if
small treatment systems are allowed, they will eventually fail and the
government will have to bail them out at taxpayer expense, which has
happened in the past. Some officials also fear that private systems
will open areas to development. The Post and Courier (Charleston, SC)