Health Care Crisis Closes New Jersey Hospitals
There is an excellent, albeit heartbreaking, article in this morning's Washington Post that I want to share with you. It tells of the Muhlenberg Regional Medical Center in Plainfield, New Jersey, a 130-year-old facility that is likely closing its doors due to financial crisis. 
Like all hospitals in New Jersey, Muhlenberg is required by state law to treat anyone who comes through its doors, regardless of their ability to pay. In the past, the hospitals have been reimbursed by the state government for the cost of services to the uninsured and underinsured. But due to major cuts in the reimbursement program, many hospitals can not afford to pick up the tab for care, and are going bankrupt. Six hospitals in New Jersey have closed their doors in the past year and a half, and half of those remaining are operating in the red.
But the story of the hospital closings is not just one of budget shortfalls and excessive costs. Many of the hospitals that have closed are in low-income communities, and many serve predominantly minority and immigrant populations. Patients will now have to travel two or three times the distance to get to the nearest hospital-- a distance that can be significant factor in the treatment of critical conditions.
Though the article recounts a variety of explanations for Muhlenberg Medical Center's demise, it also makes the point that "almost everyone agrees that a key underlying problem is the lack of universal health insurance." The answer to the question of how to save bankrupt hospitals in New Jersey, and all around the country, is not ultimately in restoring state budgets and increasing payments to hospitals for charity care, but rather in a comprehensive fix to our broken health care system-- one that, like H.R. 676, provides universal care to all people, without private insurance and without means-testing.
Low income means low assessments on their property.
Although Mr. Conyers' concern over the closing of hospitals in blight stricken areas is commendable, I don't think it's a good idea for him to blame the poor for their demise.
By determining the problem to be an overabundance of poor people, in conjunction with the State's refusal to reimburse the counties for indigent services, it feeds the drive to gentrify and cleanse the areas of concern. If they eliminate poor people, the hospitals will no longer be at risk?
A couple of years ago, under then Attorney General Elliott Spitzer, NYS decided to see how much money they could recoup if they investigated welfare fraud from the doctor/hospital angle instead of recipient malfeasance. They discovered four times as much fraud by investigating doctors and hospitals, than they did when investigating patients.
A recurring corporate ploy to avoid accountability, is to either sell or disband legally offending corporations to avoid prosecution and lawsuits. Once the offender is sold and the offending corporate officers no longer work there, they get a free pass.
Are they closing these hospitals because there is too much evidence of welfare fraud for them to cover up? It would be a perfect solution, if they wanted to cover up their crimes and increase the investor potential of areas the poor aren't maximizing the potential of.
Look into the real estate angle. Most of the poor disabled people who are being abused in my area, own property their incomes won't allow them to maximize the potential of. Elitist communities look at them as being "in the way" of their vision for a more beautiful future.
If they refuse to bow under or leave so more deserving owners can be moved in, the keepers of credibility will ensure that you never have the societal capital(credit) needed to progress.
The closing of the hospitals in poor areas, could be the end result of a bunch of educated thieves' self fulfilling prophecy. First they bleed the state for all it's worth to drive the numbers past the point of acceptability, then they blame the very presence of poor people for the states refusal to let them steal anymore.
By the time the gentrifiers are done, assessments will be going through the roof, and the New hospital will reflect the needs of the upwardly mobile.
If they do what they've done in my area, selective prosecution will be the method used to eliminate them, and the state police and court system will be the tools.
After all, if they don't raise capital through higher assessments, how will they keep these bloodsucking leeches on the public dole?
Something has to give, and with another $168 billion or so going to the middle east, sacrifces will have to be made. As long as it's only the poor who pay, who cares? Isn't that the Educated American Way?
Low income means low assessments on their personal value
Low income means low assessments on their personal value
Hi Mark (and John).
Interesting, this cart and horse logic, isn't it? It's sort of reminiscent of the sudden removal from a certain "smoking gun" from the table: the truth was thus rendered OFF-TOPIC in the Alleged People's House.
Well, you can't get far with great political (or otherwise) thinking like that, can you?
Anyways, you wrote:
A recurring corporate ploy to avoid accountability, is to either sell or disband legally offending corporations to avoid prosecution and lawsuits. Once the offender is sold and the offending corporate officers no longer work there, they get a free pass.
Classic, wouldn't you agree, John?
And what about accountability then? Well, that is all that has been trickling down for the past generation or so, isn't it. And I guess deservedly so
But this is no longer just disenfranchisement of those who can't afford the price of admission to this erstwhile public republic, the doors are closing on all of us.
John, as chair of the judiciary of the Alleged People's House, what do you make of the ex post facto legalization of the telecomm industry collection of information without a warrant, without probable cause, without oath or affirmation?
John sounds a lot like a "reasonable" man. Is that what the founders of the Constitution envisioned for their posterity? General welfare? Establish justice? Secure liberty?
Why, this ex-post-facto legalization even raises questions about how one might accomplish the common defense against such infractions by an overtly "inquisitional" administration that raises the specter of witch hunts and past inquisitional abominations. Objectively "abominations", mind you.
But now that the flip-side of the pancake has gone bad here in the New World, what will become of Lincoln's hopes for a government of the people, for the people and by the people?
So... The world was flat after all, at least in a sense, eh? Sorry about all those trails and all those tears, but it was evidently for NOTHING, right, John?
Still to John here. Tell me, how is it that the Flatulent One has been able to destroy this nation single handedly -- or is that an illusion? Maybe he has been aided and abetted by others?
But who, Honorable Congressman, could have aided and abetted such a wantonly lawless and deceptive leader, who treated his own people as trecherously as we once treated our Alleged Enemies?
We voted the enablers of the Betrayer In Chief out of office. Everything's fixed now, right?
Well, so we thought, for about 100 days or so (and even that was a stupididea -- giving them a taste of their own fascist medicine did NOTHING to correct the real problems... just children playing house with real dynamite with real blasting caps...)
So alone he stands, he who has stated that the US Constitution which he swore on three (count 'em '3') Bibles to preserve, protect, and defend; is "just a god damned piece of paper"?
Alone he stands. Right foot removed, right eye plucked out? So help me God, right?
So help me God? Everyone, please do compare that hypocritical addition to the legitimate oath here. http://usconstitution.net/const.html
And compare it to Matt 5:34 if you want to see what Jesus things of such hypocrisy.
Comes from what? Care to say that again, M' lord? Maybe even a third or fourth time because these fools on the hill really don't seem to get it do they?
"Comes from evil", it says But what... Oh what, could that mean? Such a mysterious combination of words.
John, as chairman of the State-Church judiciary can you tell us what is so much less sacred about a stack of Bibles than would be a stack of God's thrones? Or a stack of His footstools?
If you know, tell us to what do they might owe their souls, their integrity, their sense of 'self', their anchor in ethics, their personal "constitution", for such utter and obvious betrayal of public trust?
Let us ignore the religious implications on the off-chance that any of these jerks were indeed Christian or anything else worthwhile. We can likewise forget about the violation of explicit English text of the Supreme Law of the Land, which is rendered utterly moot by their own ill-logic, just tell us where's the "justice" as it was mentioned in the Preamble, where's the "justice" in this sell-out?
Don't get me wrong, I'm still plenty disappointed-off, John.
-RS
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Need for hospitals and problem-solving in general
When a problem exists, it is an excellent idea to describe the parameters of the problem as completely as possible before flailing around attempting to solve it before you know what it is. Following is an attempt in that direction.
1. Hospitals are overloaded, and are being forced to close because they cannot keep up with mandated expenses.
CAUSES: Insufficient numbers of Hospitals, and insufficient staffing of existing hospitals. Closing of hospitals in times of population (and illness) increase. Insufficient funding to meet mandated patient care, thus causing bankruptcies and closing. Forced fraudulent practice on the part of hospital Administration in the attempt to 'cover' expenses 'somehow.' (example; I had a recent outpatient surgical procedure. There were all kinds of 'questionable' charges, including one for a single aspirin tablet - three dollars!)
SOLUTION: Re-enactment of Hill-Burton. We once had plenty of hospitals to take care of the need. Now, without the umbrella that Hill-Burton supplied, the entire country is without the needed facilities.
Strict enforcement of expense guidelines. Price gouging to be strongly discouraged. A single government-funded accountant in every hospital whose sole function would be to inspect every bill and critique questionable charges. (Would be paid by HHS, not the hospital.)
Adequate funding of existing facilities. George Bu$h said "THERE IS NO HEALTH CARE CRISIS; YOU CAN ALWAYS GO TO THE EMERGENCY ROOM!" Obviously, he thinks emergency rooms don't cost anything. He is wrong. A good emergency room is probably the most expensive part of any hospital. When Hill-Burton is re-enacted, provision for Federal funding of emergency facilities must be included.
Nosocomial complications. Insufficient and improper staffing. Too many nurses' aides are doing jobs that properly belong to RN's, or even MD's! A friend of mine was killed by a nurses aide who injected 5 ml of Atropine when the instruction on the chart was ".5 ml" it was arguable that it should have read "0.5 ml." but a nurse would have known that 5 ml was a lethal dose and asked about it, if she didn't see the decimal. Mistakes like that happen daily! Proper staffing is essential.
CLEANLINESS: Extended hospital stays nowadays amount to death sentences because of infections of Antibiotic-resistant Microbes that have been bred in the hospital through the operation of Mithridation. Walls and floors should be cleaned daily and disinfected with Hydrogen Peroxide. Contagious patients should be strictly quarantined. A nurse should NEVER go from a contagious patient's bedside to that of one who is not afflicted with the same ailment! Facilities for frequent disinfection and showering must be available.
ALL THIS IS EXPENSIVE - but it is the minimum necessary to start to solve the problem.
2 I'LL TAKE UP THE MAJOR PROBLEM THAT HASN'T EVEN BEEN CONSIDERED - BUT LATER. THE NUMBER ONE CAUSE OF DEATH IN THIS COUNTRY IS IATROGENESIS, AND DESERVES SEPARATE ATTENTION!!
Poor planning or population control measures?
After years of "discovering" that every "entitlement program" has been raped and pillaged by card carrying members of educated America, I can't help but wonder why more people aren't discussing the mantra promoted by all educational institutions of higher learning in America. If the overbreeding poor are the biggest threat to their dream of a United States of Disney, it makes sense that hospitals in poorer communities would be used as a tool to control the populations of these areas.
Whenever I hear the fortunate ones talking about the burden placed on them by the overbreeding poor, I grow convinced that their fear of poor people has been reflected in the treatment they receive in America's hospitals. If it is, the closing of hospitals in economically disenfranchised areas is a success story for those who've been brainwashed into feeling threatened by the presence of people who shop at Wal-Mart.
The concept that less educated people are a threat to "the way of life" of America's educated legacy families, MUST be taken into account when the system is controlled lock stock and barrel, by these legacy families.
We can get lost in the semantics of healthcare forever, but until we address the fact that the people who control America, see our existence as a threat to their existence, it will always result in more of the same.
The semantics aren't as important as the ideology. As long as ambitious or rich people are educated in such a way that they believe "we the people" are a threat to their way of life, the semantics of the argument will change, as the disparity between the lifespans of the rich and poor increases.
When elitists talk about the poor's entitlement programs, they never mention the reason they hate them so much. Every dollar spent by our government, with a goal of helping the less fortunate, is an attack on their ability to pass their legacy on to the next generation.
In a Democracy, if you get too many disenfranchised people, they usually band together to upset the status quo. America's educated elitists understand this and have taken steps to eliminate the competition.
Our entire economy is based on the trafficking of death, and designed to make profits for these legacy families. Why should our healthcare industry be any different?
For the record, the first time I have any kind of serious health issue and have to go to the hospital, I expect to die. I won't care about the semantics, I'll just be dead.
The Prosecution of George W. Bush for Murder
Vincent Bugliosi calls for the United States of America to return to the great nation it once was and can be again. He believes the first step to achieving this goal is to bring those responsible for the war in Iraq to justice.
Part 1
Part 2
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You can lead a republican to the truth, but you can't make him think it...