Ka‘ū News Briefs, Saturday Sept. 18, 2021

    In the women's Half-Marathon, Sierra Ponthier, with 1:59:50.2, takes the title. She led the 20-29 age group. Laura Ankrum takes second in 2:07:35.2, and led the 40-49 age group. Amy Young is third in 2:09:40.9, and led the 30-39 age group. Marta Camproni comes in fourth, in 2:10:28.2. Female winner of the 50-59 age group is Michelle Suber, with 2:24:31.4. Female winner of the 60-69 age group is Sandy Keith in 4:03.23.1. There were no women in the race over 70 years of age.

  For Kaʻū Coffee Trail Runs 10K, John Benner is the overall winner in 38:02.8. He also led the 20-19 men's age group. Second in the men's is Patrick Baker in 48:59.0. He also led the 40-49 mens age group. Third in men's is Chris Poerstel in 51:54.4. He also led the 30-39 age group. Fourth is Jacob Head in 53.41.4. Male winner in the 50-59 age group is Danny Guerpo in 54.42.4. Mens winner in the 60-69 age group is Ricardo Barbarti 1:43:25.6.  Male winner in the 70 plus age group is Kevin Kunz in 2:08:04.

    In the women's 10K, Kendra Ignacio wins the title in 59:45.3. She also led the 50-59 female age group. Second is Laura Birse in 1:00:49.7. She also led the 40-49 age group. Third is Julie Sheele, taking second in the 40-49 age group. Fourth is Michelle Young, also taking third in the 40-49 age group. Female winner for the 30-39 age group is Melissa Kunz in 1:14:49.8.

For the 60-69 female age group, Dawn Tillery takes the title in 1:10:16.8. The 19 and under female category sees Jordan Avilla take the race in 1:18:29.8. There were no female racers over 70.

    For Kaʻū Coffee Trail Runs 5K, Parker Smith is the overall winner, in 21:25.7. He also led the 19 and under men's age group. Second in the men's is Kyle Ignacio, also coming in second in the 19 and under male age group. Third is Joe Barcia in 24.10.4. He led the 50-59 mens age group. Fourth is Cody Smith in 25:39. He was third in the 19 and under group. in the men's 40-49 age group, Justin Denny is the winner in 26:35.9. In the 60-69 age group, Richard Gillingwater is the winner in 31:07.3. There were no male runners between the ages of 20 and 40 and none over 70.

     In the women's 5K, Megan Denny wins in 28:06.2. She also led the 40-49 female age group. Second in the women's is Hina Barcia, in 30:37.6. She led the 20-29 female age group. Third is Tracie Brewere in 30:51.1. She is second in the 40-49 age group. Fourth is Christina Rasmussen in 31:42.9, third in the 40-49 age group. Winning the 19 and under age group is Elaina Head in 34:24.4. Winning the 30 to 29 age group is Amy McDavid in 34:39.3. Winning the 50-59 age group is Louann Griego in 36:23.1. Winning the 60-69 age group is Barbara Anderson in 39:27.6. There were no female runners over 70.

    See all the results from Timing is Everything at https://www.webscorer.com/race?raceid=254382. The race was produced by OKK, Kaʻū Coffee Mill and Hawai'i Island Racers.

FRIDAY'S FIRST COMMERCIAL FLIGHT TO AMERICAN SAMOA since the pandemic lockdown began in March 2020 carried a returning resident with COVID who was immediately put into quarantine in a government facility.     All 240 passengers on the Hawaiian Air flight on Friday are now in quarantine. American Samoa officials are registering the case as its first COVID-19 infection. The resident with COVID-19 was going home from a trip to the U.S. mainland and Hawai'i.
    According to a statement from American Samoa, the COVID victim was fully vaccinated and tested negative before boarding the flight home. American Samoa requires vaccinations plus ten days of quarantine after arrival and three pre-travel tests before boarding the plane to Pago Pago.
    Among the passengers on the flight was American Samoa Gov. Lemanu Peleti Mauga, who said, "The discovery of this positive case during quarantine highlights the importance of why our process is critical to prevent the spread of COVID-19. It further highlights the importance of maintaining our current quarantine protocols." The governor, according to protocol for all travelers to American Samoa, is in quarantine. HAWAI'I COUNTY CIVIL DEFENSE reported 79 new cases and 1219 active cases, with 45 persons hospitalized on Hawai`i Island today. Civil Defense sent out this message:    "Thank you for doing your part, whether getting vaccinated or following the preventive measures but we need to continue as the virus is still being transmitted within our community. Please follow the preventive measures of wearing face coverings, maintaining physical distancing, limiting gatherings, and staying home when you are sick."

    County restrictions include no more than five persons gathering indoors and no more than ten outdoors. 

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WHY AREN'T THERE ENOUGH DOCTORS, ICU BEDS, and other health care facilities in Hawai'i?  Grassroot Institute of Hawai'i's President Keli'i Akina, Phd., published this opinion today: 

    Throughout Hawai'i's declared public health emergency over the past 18 months, many of the rules and orders issued have been less about the disease in question and more about reducing stress on our state's public health services.
    But if the surge in COVID-19 cases is overwhelming our healthcare capacity, shouldn't we also take a closer look at the government policies that have contributed to the problem?                    Healthcare access is a complicated issue, and no single policy is responsible for the problems we now face. But it is undeniable that our own laws have played a part in this crisis. In other words, to some extent, the stress on Hawaii's healthcare system is less the fault of COVID-19 than our own regulations.

    Some of those problems are so obvious that the governor dealt with them in his earliest proclamations. Restrictions on telehealth and licensing for out-of-state practitioners were lifted at the outset. But there are other laws and regulations, some more complex, that continue to throttle healthcare in Hawai'i. For example, Hawai'i's doctor shortage continues to worsen, and it's a problem that will inevitably spread unless we do something about it. Even before our current state of emergency was declared, the state needed nearly 800 doctors and about 2,200 nonphysician healthcare personnel.
    Hawai'i's high cost of living plays a large role in the doctor shortage, but that's not the only factor. Local physicians will tell you that Hawaii's policy of applying the general excise tax to medical services is particularly burdensome.
    According to research from the Grassroot Institute of Hawai'i, a medical services exemption from the state's 4% GET would save about $5,275 each for the approximately 38,000 full-time workers in the medical industry.

Keli'i Akina, President of Grassroot Institute of Hawai'i

    If the GET exemption led an additional 820 physicians to set up shop in the state, it would result in an increase of almost 4,000 full-time positions in the industry, 4,000 additional supplier and induced jobs, $1.4 billion in additional economic activity and about $67.3 million in taxes. Would more doctors and medical industry staff in Hawaii help ease the pressure on our hospitals in any future health emergency? Of course they would.
    The lack of medical facilities is also self-inflicted. Hawai'i's broad certificate-of-need laws require that investors prove there is a "need" for their proposed new services — such as a new hospital, imaging center, rehab facility or dialysis center. Too often their proposals are denied.
Grassroot Institute research shows that since 2006, state officials have rejected over $200 million of private healthcare investment covering over 200 hospital beds, including 25 ICU beds, to the point where Hawai'i has among the fewest hospital beds per capita in the nation.
    And here's something that would be funny if it wasn't sadly true: CON laws are sometimes referred to as a "competitor's veto," because that's essentially what they are. At the state hearings, "interested parties" can testify on whether an area truly "needs" the proposed new facilities or services. Such parties include the owners of existing facilities, so the local hospital, rehab center or dialysis center gets to weigh in on whether the government should greenlight a potential rival.
Unsurprisingly, the existing "interested parties" tend to oppose the idea — which is what you could expect if, say, McDonald's and Burger King had veto power over whether you could open a new burger restaurant in your neighborhood.    A better approach would be to let healthcare entrepreneurs, risking their own resources, decide whether it makes sense for them to build new facilities or services. As the states that have repealed their CON laws have discovered, healthcare access tends to improve when government officials are relieved of having to decide what is "needed" or not.
According to a study from the Mercatus Institute — mentioned earlier this week in an excellent article by Civil Beat reporter Kirstin Downey — Hawai'i has the highest number of certificate-of-need restrictions in the country. By comparing costs and outcomes in states with restrictive certificate-of-need laws and those without, the Mercatus Center determined that CON laws have increased annual per capita healthcare spending in Hawaii by $219 and reduced the number of healthcare facilities in the state by about 14.
    These are additional facilities that could have been available to us when the coronavirus first appeared in the islands in March 2020. Wouldn't it be nice if they were available to us when the next public health emergency presents itself?
    While we hope Hawai'i never has to face another public health emergency like COVID-19, it is foolish not to prepare for the worst. After all, this won't be the last challenge our state faces, and improving overall healthcare access and quality is itself a worthy goal.
   Being prepared means removing the obstacles that the government has placed in our path. That's what we "need" to improve Hawaii's healthcare and eliminate the problem of overstressed and overcrowded hospitals.

     See more research and opinion at www.grassrootinstitute.org.