To the editor:

I encourage everyone to vote “Yes” on the Houghton County Medical Care Facility millage renewal on the primary election ballot on August 2 – 2.5531 mills for 6 years. I urge you to ask your relatives, friends, and neighbors to vote “Yes.”

The primary mission of the HCMCF is to provide long-term nursing care to our low income senior citizens regardless of ability to pay or medical condition. Approximately 80 percent of the residents are covered by Medicaid. In order to receive enhanced Medicaid payments, Houghton County must pay a “maintenance of effort” to Medicaid, approximately $400,000 per year. The HCMCF millage covers the maintenance of effort and approximately 10 percent of the operating expenses.

The residents of the HCMCF are our parents, grandparents, relatives or friends who worked in low-paying jobs or as housewives and mothers. Their only sources of income are a small Social Security check and maybe a small pension. Some of them are veterans.

Almost every day, there is an obituary in The Daily Mining Gazette for a resident of the HCMCF. In most cases, the family of the deceased expresses their gratitude to the HCMCF staff for the excellent care that their loved one received. Anyone who visits someone at the HCMCF will be impressed by how clean and well maintained the HCMCF is.

Please vote “Yes” on the Houghton County Medical Care Facility millage renewal.

Anton J. Pintar

South Range