Some lawmakers back subsidy for CHC but not $10M

The Senate is set to hold a session on Rota today but it will not be acting on a compromise version of House Bill 17-278 providing an $11.58-million line of credit for the Commonwealth Healthcare Corp. until after the House passes an agreed-upon accompanying bill to change the CHC board into a “governing” one, senators said yesterday.

The House will hold a session on Wednesday, and they may pass Senate Bill 17-80.

Just the same, House and Senate members said yesterday they support providing CHC with a government subsidy at least for the next few years to give it ample time to stand on its own since it became a corporation on Oct. 1, 2011. However, that subsidy may not necessarily be $10 million annually as requested by CHC chief financial officer Alvaro Santos, lawmakers said.

House Ways and Means Committee chair Ray Basa (Cov-Saipan) said the panel is in a difficult position of recommending an annual subsidy to CHC while further cutting other agencies and programs.

“I personally support giving CHC [an] annual subsidy but we have to take away from others. We could do the cuts proportionally. CHC services are important,” he said, adding that the proposed fiscal year 2013 budget allots only $2.5 million to CHC.

CHC was receiving $38 million government subsidy before it became a corporation in fiscal year 2012. The Fitial administration gave the corporation $5 million in seed money for 2012 and expected the hospital to collect $18 million in revenues in 12 months. The hospital is nowhere close to collecting that. Because of the halt in government subsidy and severe lack of funds, CHC always teeters on the edge of a shutdown.

“If we could give them $10 million or more, we would do so but there’s just no new money coming in,” Basa said.

Rep. Joseph Palacios (R-Saipan) and Rep. Frank Dela Cruz (R-Saipan) separately said they support the idea of continuing to subsidize CHC.

Palacios said the July 1 launch of Saipan Air could bring in more tourists and more revenues for the CNMI government, and that could help fund CHC.

Dela Cruz, a Health Committee member, said CHC should still be subsidized by the central government but there should be a sunset provision; for example, only for three years or up to 2015. “Hopefully by that time CHC can already stand on its own,” he added.

Sen. Ralph Torres (R-Saipan), chairman of the Senate Health Committee, said he also supports annual government support to CHC for at least a few years more.

“But the amount is not necessarily $10 million or more; otherwise they will be back to being a government department and not a corporation,” he added.

Torres is also co-chair of the conference committee that worked on HB 17-278. He reiterated yesterday that House and Senate conferees agreed to pass the two CHC-related bills simultaneously but the House only passed the compromise version of HB 17-278 last week.

Rep. Sylvester Iguel (Cov-Saipan), co-chair of the conference committee, said it was only an oversight that SB 17-80 was not reported out by his committee as he was sick days before the session last week.

Senate President Paul Manglona (Ind-Rota) said that when he announced on Thursday that the Senate will reschedule its session for today, he was expecting the House to also schedule that day another session either for yesterday or today to pass the accompanying bill. He said that would have been enough for a three-day advance notice.

Manglona said the speaker has not formally called for a House session, although members said yesterday a House session could be held on Wednesday.

Because most senators were already on Rota as of yesterday, Manglona said he won’t cancel the Senate session today and would act on other measures instead.

However, the Senate will hold a session again to act on HB 17-278 after the House passes on Wednesday SB 17-80.