- Aloha!
-
- The hospital/medical/doctor
thing on the big Island is getting worse from day to day, so
you may want to include this heads-up into your dreams of relocating
here.
- Since we have
heard so many stories about how there is not one physician here
who will accept new patients, and since you must have a primary
care physician to qualify for just about any medial insurance
program, that leaves Kaiser Permanente.
- Kaiser is about
your only alternative right now unless you are lucky enough to
find yourselves a doc who will at least agree to be that primary
care physician should you ever need one. Kaiser keeps getting
more and more people signing on because of the situation here,
and at the same time, we keep reading in the paper that they
are doing more and more staff reductions to save themselves money.
The downscaling of service is very apparent, too.
-
- If you would
like to know more about Kaiser Permanente, google "kaiser
permanente issues." Scary stuff.
-
- In my book and
in some of my updates I mentioned that the Kamuela/Waimea Hospital
is the best facility on the Island. A few days ago we read that
even they are laying off 64 people because of necessary budget
cuts. Probably once week there's an article in the paper about
the hospital-medical-doctor thing here. Our esteemed Governor
Linda Lingle just vetoed a bill that would have allowed some
work on the issues that are keeping new doctors away and sending
the ones we have back to the Mainland.
- The general
consensus is that this is a huge problem, it's getting worse,
and there will be no solutions any time soon.
-
- Right now the
only solution is to stay well.
-
- Want some more
doom and gloom? I thought so! OK, housing prices are still dropping,
which is good news for anyone looking for real estate. It is
getting more and more difficult to get a mortgage, however, and
contrary to what we continually get from the media, interest
rates are not coming down. Maybe they're coming down to the lenders,
but now the lenders raise the base rates a point here and a half
a point there for every little detail until the end result is
a rate higher than it was a year ago. To qualify for a mortgage,
you best have at least a 25% down payment, the house better appraise
for more than the asking price, you will need at least a 720
credit score, and the stars need to be aligned in your favor.
-
- And that's the
good news. House prices may be coming down, but prices on everything
else are going up at such a rate that it is evident daily. Groceries,
household goods, building material . . . all going up on a daily
basis. Every time we go grocery shopping the prices are a bit
more than the last time. The daily bits add up to some significant
numbers over a few months.
-
- Of course, everyone
likes to blame it all on fuel prices. NOT! When Safeway sends
a container of goods over here from the West Coast, the cost
of fuel, even if doubled, when divided among the thousands of
items in the container would be insignificant. Another example
is this: I need a specific power tool that Home Depot sells for
$370. I can buy the same item online from any number of sellers
for $290 and the cost of shipping it is $26. Yet the Home Depot
salesperson insists that the price difference is "shipping
costs," and that the new higher cost is because of increased
fuel price. I think not. I believe that the main reason for the
escalating costs of everything here is that those in charge know
they have a captive audience (us) and a scapegoat to blame it
on (fuel prices.)
-
- The new airline
mess is another example. We lost both Aloha Airlines and ATA
at the same time, and they were the only carriers with direct
flights in and out of Hilo. There seems to be no interest in
replacing this service, even though the airplanes ran full most
of the time. What's up with that? At the same time those two
airlines went bust, fares to and from Hawaii doubled in and some
cases tripled. They blame that on fuel cost, too. Really? How
come you can fly from the West Coast to Florida or New York for
$400 R/T and they want a $900 and up from The West Coast to Hawaii,
a shorter distance? How come I can fly from SF or LA to New Zealand
or even to Europe cheaper than to Hawaii? How come you can fly
from SF to LA for under $100 and it costs more to fly inter-island
now?
-
- It feels like
there's something creepy going on that us common folk don't know
about, and it has already seriously hurt the tourist-related
industry here in Hawaii. The fallout is everywhere and affects
everyone.
-
- Our kids can
no longer come for visits. We can no longer go over there. We,
like so many others, simply cannot afford it now. The bottom
line is that if you have family on the Mainland and is important
to you to see them often, these things need to be factored into
your plans now. Only a few short months ago none of this was
an issue, but now it has become one.
-
- Sorry I don't
have any good news in these areas, but such is life. We can only
hope that the situations are temporary.
- ~~~~
- Please
Live Aloha!
-
-
- Mahalo for
"listening."
- Skip Thomsen
& Ohana
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