All too often, I hear stories of localpeople facing difficult decisions, forcedto choose between their health and theirfinancial stability.

Recently, in Yancey County, a car-penter walked into his local emergencyroom cradling a bleeding hand. In aworkplace accident, he lost a finger to a

power saw. Hospital staff leapt to actionto re-attach his finger — but, after theprocedure, he refused to stay overnightfor a safe recovery. Though his healingwas at risk, he explained that, withouthealth insurance, he could not affordany further treatment.

Nobody should have to make thatchoice, and, to me, stories like this makeit apparent we’re in dire need of change.Our decisions as a country and as a stateare hurting our citizens — and, throughdysfunctional economics and policieson health care, hospitals and other med-ical providers are forced to pass alonguninsured patient costs to everyoneelse.

But we have the power to turn thisaround. North Carolina legislators arenow considering plans that improve ac-cess to care by accepting federal Medi-caid money, ensuring more North Caro-linians receive health care coverage. Weneed to get this done — and our gover-nor agrees.

In an April 24 front page article in theCitizen Times, Gov. Roy Cooper is quot-ed saying, “We know this will increasethe bottom line so that rural hospitalscan hire more doctors and nurses, sothat health care premiums for everyonecan be affected, so that jobs can be cre-ated.”

Expanding coverage by acceptingfederal Medicaid money would benefitrural North Carolinians the most, sincethey are more likely than urban resi-dents to be uninsured and have higherrates of injury, teen births and prevent-

able hospitalizations, according to NCHealth News and the Kaiser FamilyFoundation. Yet rural legislators havebeen some of the main obstacles in ac-cepting federal money.

I believe that access to basic healthcare is a fundamental human right, justas vital as access to food, water andshelter. Given the wealth we have in thiscountry, it is a disgrace that we have somany people without access to basicprimary care — many of whom, ulti-mately, will rely on hospital emergencyrooms (where available) as a safety netwhen they are so sick they have no otherchoice. This vicious cycle repeats overand over again, driving overall costshigher for us all.

Nonprofit organizations like MercyUrgent Care are improving the lives ofNorth Carolinians every day, but all thecharities together cannot meet theenormous need that exists across thestate. We need to look after each other inmore ways, including ensuring healthcare is affordable and available to all. Wewill find that, when our policies matchthe reality of life, the health care costs of

everyone decrease as we lower uncom-pensated care and reliance on emergen-cy room visits.

For more than a century, Mercy Ur-gent Care has vowed to care for its West-ern North Carolina community, usingthe core values set forth by its foundingministry, the Sisters of Mercy. But bed-rock principles of all faith and moral tra-ditions call us to look after one another— following some form of the GoldenRule: “Do unto others as you would havethem do unto you.”

Our current paralysis shows thatwe’ve lost sight of our togetherness, ofbeing sisters and brothers in a humanfamily. As Mother Teresa once said, “Ifwe have no peace, it is because we haveforgotten that we belong to each other.”Health care — caring for the health andwell-being of one another — is a greatplace to start remembering.

Tim Johnston is CEO of Mercy UrgentCare, a local, not-for-profit system ofseven urgent care facilities in the Ashe-ville area, Brevard (with a primary careclinic), Burnsville, Weaverville, and Co-lumbus (opening in June).

We need change – for the health of all of usYour TurnTim JohnstonGuest columnist

Our decisions as a country and as a state are hurting our

citizens — and, through dysfunctional economics and

policies on health care, hospitals and other medical

providers are forced to pass along uninsured patient costs

to everyone else.

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EDITORIAL BOARD

Dedicated tothe upbuilding of WesternNorth Carolinasince 1870.

Casey Blake Opinions EditorKatie WadingtonNews Director

John BoyleSenior WriterBill McGounContributing Editor

Conservationists may have come upwith a sensible compromise regardingtimber sales in Nantahala National For-est.

The Forest Service had laid out fivealternatives, including “no action,” for20,638 acres in southeastern ClayCounty. The agency’s preferred alterna-tive would involve cutting 845 acres in32 stands and building 9.1 miles ofroads. The proposal also includes 17 pro-jects to restore stream habitat qualityand connectivity and reduce sedimentto streams.

Some 1,500 acres north of U.S. 64would be “slashed and burned” to re-duce denser undergrowth. said GaryKauffman, a Forest Service botanist.

“The project is designed to improveor maintain wildlife habitat, enhancespecies diversity across forest stands,soil and water resources, and foresthealth through vegetation manage-ment,” said Andy Gaston, district rangerfor the Cheoah/Tusquitee Ranger Dis-tricts of Nantahala National Forest.

He said logging will allow for sunlightto hit the forest floor and let young for-ests flourish with grasses and shrubs,habitat that improves breeding and for-aging for wildlife and regeneration ofmixed hardwood stands, especiallyoaks and hickories that produce acornsand hickory nuts, an important foodsource for wildlife.

One must wonder how wildlife sur-vived before there was commercial log-ging. We understand that fire is a natu-ral process that has been suppressed,presumably upsetting the forest bal-ance in favor of older growth. Still …

David Whitmire, chair of the Fish andWildlife Conservation Council, a sports-man’s outfit based in Rosman, said thegroup supports the Forest Service pref-erence. “To us it looks like it has themost potential for wildlife with 845acres of young forest habitat,” Whitmiresaid.

Whitmire said he isn’t concernedabout the road building since they areconsidered “temporary roads,” to get ac-cess to the timber, then reseeded andclosed.

That’s just the problem, says JoshKelly, public lands biologist with theAsheville-based environmental non-profit MountainTrue. “They say theroads will be temporary, but that meansthat there will be no maintenance mon-ey devoted,” Kelly said.

“Essentially, there’s a greater poten-tial for erosion into streams, changes inhydrology, unregulated OHV use,spreading of non-native plants and en-vironmental problems with temporaryroads,” he said.

He also said the logging would takeplace in 7,000 acres being considered asan addition to the existing SouthernNantahala Wilderness under the Nanta-

hala and Pisgah Forest Plan Revision.“Most of problems are in the Chunky

Gal proposed new wilderness area. It’s

one of the areas that has the most col-laborative support, one the NantahalaPisgah Forest Partnership is supportive

in becoming wilderness,” Kelly said.“Another very appropriate designa-

tion for Chunky Gal is a backcountrymanagement area. But in either case,you couldn’t build roads in those areas,”he said.

Kelly says the decision on whether tomake Chunky Gal a wilderness shouldcome before the forest plan. Otherwise,the plan’s roads and logging wouldmake the wilderness designation moot.

There is an alternative acceptable toboth Kelly and to Callie D. Moore, exec-utive director of the Hayesville-basedHiwassee River Watershed Coalition.This alternative calls for logging 497acres in 18 stands, building only 3.3miles of roads and burning 1,383 acres.

However, it would provide for onlyhalf the number of watershed improve-ments, a provision that Kelly finds cyn-ical. “They’re trying to manipulate thepublic to think that more logging is bet-ter for water quality,” he said.

Moore said that if the alternativewith less logging is selected, the coali-tion will work with the Forest Serviceand members of the Nantahala PisgahForest Partnership to find resources toimplement the watershed improve-ments outlined in other alternatives.

That seems to be he best plan on thetable.

EDITORIAL

Heed conservationists’ calls on timber sales in Nantahala

Members of the Pisgah Backcountry Horsemen use pack mules and horses loaded with timber to rebuild a privy in thePisgah Nantional Forest for the Natahalia Hiking Club. COURTESY OF CHRISTINE VIGUE

Buck Creek, the largest tributary of the Upper Nantahala River, is considered“outstanding resource waters.” The Buck Project timber sale is named for thecreek. COURTESY OF JOSH KELLY/MOUNTAINTRUE

4E ❚ SUNDAY, MAY 12, 2019 ❚ ASHEVILLE CITIZEN TIMES