In my opinion, Dickinson County Healthcare System’s financial woe fiasco is nothing but an orchestrated train wreck. The evasive responses I have received from DCHS on my Freedom of Information Act requests have only confirmed my suspicions the financial dilemma was created and manufactured to fund the pensions. Let me explain: Ultimately, when the lawsuit filed by the union workers at DCHS winds its way through the legal system, they shall prevail because Michigan state Constitution protects their pensions. Then the entity known as DCHS will have to come up with the money to fund the underfunded pension actuarial. At that point, the hospital will have come up with money or file for bankruptcy.

A large portion of the equity in the hospital will be from the capital improvements the hospital is planning from money borrowed from U.S. Department of Agriculture and backed by the taxpayers of Dickinson County. The only variable on the liability the taxpayers of Dickinson County is on the hook for is how much money an institution buying DCHS is willing to pay, investment returns and what the federal bankruptcy court decides.

In short, a large portion of $24.6 million will be used to fund the underfunded pension in a roundabout way. This is a shell game.