{"id":212577,"date":"2025-12-31T04:44:12","date_gmt":"2025-12-31T04:44:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/212577\/"},"modified":"2025-12-31T04:44:12","modified_gmt":"2025-12-31T04:44:12","slug":"mike-mcneills-diary-for-tuesday-december-30-2025-trolling-for-health-care-mike-mcneills-diary","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/212577\/","title":{"rendered":"Mike McNeill\u2019s Diary for Tuesday, December 30, 2025: Trolling for health care | Mike McNeill’s Diary"},"content":{"rendered":"

Private philanthropy is alive and well in Arkansas. We\u2019re happy to note that B. Thomas Golisano and his Golisano Foundation have given $50 million to Arkansas Children\u2019s \u2013 the largest single gift in the hospital system\u2019s history. Arkansas Children\u2019s deserves all the support that the public can provide. That said, we acknowledge that we may be the only people in the world trolling Arkansas Children\u2019s online. When we spot news from Children\u2019s on X or elsewhere that touts new programs, services or campuses in Little Rock, NWA or Jonesboro, we post a response like, \u201cThat’s great news. Looking forward to Arkansas Children’s new facility in South Arkansas.\u201d Our regular readers know that Magnolians having to make 250-mile round trips to Little Rock for advanced medical treatment, and killing a day or even two in the process, drives us out of our freaking mind. We\u2019re not in a position to tell Arkansas Children\u2019s how it should spend its own money. But we do advocate for South Arkansas and its needs. And we need more pediatric health services closer to home. CLICK HERE to see the story about Golisano\u2019s gift<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Speaking of medical care close to home, we recommend that you read our current lead story, written by Tess Vrbin of Arkansas Advocate. She writes about Arkansas\u2019 shortage of maternity wards, noting that more children are being born in ambulances enroute to one of the scattered birthing hospitals in South Arkansas. Vrbin quotes extensively Amanda Warren-Newton, president of the Arkansas Ambulance Association and owner of Columbia County Ambulance Service. Paramedics are perfectly qualified to deliver babies in an emergency but everyone agrees that an ambulance is not the preferred option. And, notes Vrbin, \u201cMedicaid reimburses ambulance companies at far lower than the actual cost of services, making it financially difficult for paramedics to serve rural areas.\u201d CLICK HERE to read the story<\/a>.<\/p>\n

At least some of the solutions to South Arkansas\u2019 health care access problems are political. Steve Crowell, Lane Jean, Wade Andrews and soon, Beth Anne Rankin Baker, this is your baby, as it were.<\/p>\n

Ten years ago, we reported that the auditorium at Southern Arkansas University\u2019s Wharton Nursing Building was renamed \u201cSturgis Auditorium,\u201d recognizing a gift to the university from the Roy and Christine Sturgis Charitable and Education Trust. CLICK HERE to read the story<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Two words: Corn casserole.<\/p>\n

Cold this morning, in the lower 20s.<\/p>\n

Mike McNeill is publisher and editor of magnoliareporter.com<\/a>. Email him at news@magnoliareporter.com<\/a> or call him at 870-904-3865. Opinions expressed in this column are his own.<\/p>\n

CLICK HERE to see past installments of Mike McNeill\u2019s Diary<\/a>.<\/p>\n

magnoliareporter.com<\/a> is moving away from its social media account on X (formerly Twitter). Join us on Bluesky by downloading the Bluesky app and becoming a member. See what we post at @magnolia-reporter.bsky.social .<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Private philanthropy is alive and well in Arkansas. We\u2019re happy to note that B. Thomas Golisano and his…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":212578,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[163,521,85,46,118319],"class_list":{"0":"post-212577","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-healthcare","8":"tag-health","9":"tag-healthcare","10":"tag-il","11":"tag-israel","12":"tag-mike_mcneills_diary"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/212577","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=212577"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/212577\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/212578"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=212577"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=212577"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=212577"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}