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                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, February 8, 1992                   TAG: 9202100202
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A-11   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

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PROVIDERS ALWAYS HAVE CARED FOR NEEDY

THERE IS an old saying that I believe most of us senior citizens remember and have probably practiced: "Don't bite the hand that feeds you."

This is, in my opinion, the proposal of our ill-advised governor on taxing the health providers of Virginia to assist in funding of health care for our medically indigent.

Since the advent of Medicare in 1966 and subsequently Medicaid (a federal- and state-funded program), the governmental rules and regulations have not reimbursed the provider the total cost of providing these services. What is reimbursable cost is basically a bureaucratic decision with extremely limited deviation.

Hospitals and physicians in Virginia have always taken care of the needy, before and after Medicare/Medicaid, and I believe they will continue to do so. To propose an additional tax on this selected group is adding insult to injury. EUGENE J. SHARPE SALEM

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