It is to the benefit of the vast majority of our residents to have the MercyOne clinic be a viable medical services option for our community.

As a family who has contributed and worked on providing funds for Mayo Clinic Health System in Albert Lea, I now believe that helping make the MercyOne clinic be a success in our community is a predominant charitable interest for those who live here. The realizable medical cost savings for our community is in the millions of dollars.

We all believed that the commitment that Mayo Health System made to our community when we gave them our hospital complex, and raised money to improve it, was a good-faith commitment. In hindsight, I believe it was Mayo’s plan all along to utilize our community as a feeder system for centralized medical services centered out of Rochester.

Recent research developed by a Harvard University study has concluded that people will die because the services previously rendered in our community were terminated. Many of our citizens will not as easily be able to travel to Austin, Rochester or Mankato. Many of us concerned about medical care in Albert Lea thought that was a possibility. We now know that it is not just a convenience, but a vital interest to have a broad range of basic medical services available in our community.

I am not saying that the Mayo system is not a great medical care facility, but I am saying that the cost of that for our community is excessive. Because they are the only provider, many of the services provided for our community are 20 to 30% higher than those same identical services in the Twin Cities or in most other communities similar to ours. If MercyOne clinic is to be successful, which I believe it will be, we need to support it by using the MercyOne clinic in Albert Lea and by giving our charitable dollars to the Albert Lea Healthcare Coalition. Those working on the Albert Lea Healthcare Coalition should be thanked with a great amount of gratitude for their efforts to provide our citizens with a local, affordable, quality medical service.

Henry Savelkoul

Albert Lea