The CUC-CHCC utility bill debacle

As a hemodialysis patient admitted to the Commonwealth Health Center several times during the past year, I read with deep personal concern the statement attributed to CUC board chair David Sablan that he would not hesitate to disconnect the hospital’s power utility if the Commonwealth Healthcare Corp. hereafter fails to timely pay its bills. While I agree with Mr. Sablan that all CUC customers must pay their utility bill on time or face disconnection, it seems to me that CUC, as a government entity given the exclusive authority over water, power and sewer utility, has a responsibility to exercise such authority with care and using its sound discretion.

Mr. Sablan is correct in saying that the CHCC board and management must trim its expenses and live within its means. But in the process of trying to make his point to CHCC officials, I believe he was wrong to threaten that he would simply disconnect utility service to CHCC if it fails to pay its utility bills on time. Although his statement was apparently made in anger toward CHCC management, Mr. Sablan should always be mindful that the health care of all patients at the only hospital in the CNMI is a matter of life and death. And the issue of utility bill payment between the two government agencies should never be a reason for compromising this critical fact.

If utility payment is not being timely made by CHCC because of lack of funding, the answer is not to disconnect the utility needed by the hospital and its patients, but for the two government agencies to seek a resolution of the problem with the executive and legislative branches, which enacted the law establishing CHCC. As most of us still remember, when the law establishing CHCC was enacted several years ago, the so-called “seed money” of $5 million appropriated to cover basic hospital and administrative expenses was clearly inadequate. Indeed, it was irresponsible for the Legislature to pass the CHCC legislation and for the governor to sign it into law knowing that, without adequate funding, the new corporation could barely function. As a line department, CHCC’s predecessor—the Department of Public Health (including the hospital)—was being funded to the tune of about $35 million.

Unless the matter of adequate funding for CHCC is seriously addressed by the Legislature and the governor soon, I am afraid that CUC chair Sablan’s statement to disconnect utility service to CHCC will become a reality. When this happens, the hospital would most likely close and all the federal funding we are now receiving from the feds would likely be terminated. Do we want a public health crisis to happen? I surely hope not.

Enfin Serafin,

Alexandro “Colonel” Sablan
Dandan, Saipan