June 20, 2018
Hagåtña — Over the last four decades, with the multiple challenges the Guam Memorial Hospital has faced, there have been different Governors, different Trustees, different Administrators. The one common denominator all these years has been a lack of funding.
As far back as 1979, GMH has faced a funding shortfall because they aren’t paid for all the services they provide – they have to give life-saving services to anyone even if they can’t pay.
And for years, GMH has faced a revenue shortfall at an average of $30 million a year, affecting the quality of care for every man, woman and child on Guam. GMH has asked the Legislature for appropriations each year to help fill that shortfall.
The last three fiscal years, GMH management requested the following GMH funding from senators, but were shorted by tens of millions of dollars:
• Funding request from GMH for 2018: $36M
• Funding provided by the Legislature for 2018: $9.5M
• Amount shorted GMH by Health Chair and Legislature: $26.5M
• Funding request from GMH for 2017: $45.4M
• Funding approved by the Legislature for 2017: $18.8M
• Amount shorted GMH by Health Chair and Legislature: $26.3M
• Funding request from GMH for 2016: $35.1M
• Funding request approved by the Legislature for 2016: $13.5M
• Amount shorted GH by Health Chair and Legislature: $21.6M
Despite this enormous shortage, and failure to fund GMH, senators are once again blaming leadership at the hospital.
Legislative Health Chairman Dennis Rodriguez has allowed the Legislature to underfund the people’s hospital by $74.2 million in three years alone. And more recently, he and several other senators have committed to stripping GMH of their $30 million dedicated funding source each year.
