Hospital Closes

One can't turn on the TV today without hearing some want to be politician talking about Obama Care.  The Tea Party Movement likes to talk about less government and lower taxes, yet no one seems to really understand exactly what this all means, that is no one except for those in America who are loosing their hospitals, one by one.  After 160 years of service, St Vincents Hospital in New York is closing its doors and for most Americans, it is a "who cares" attitude that is until it happens in their neighborhood.

The cold hard reality that the Tea Party Movement and Republicans in general fail to accept is if we want modern hospitals in America, someone is going to have to pay the bills.  With fewer and fewer Americans covered with insurance, more and more Americans are trying to go it alone and it is leaving our hospitals with a mountain of uncollectable debt.  One of the provisions in the new Health Care law forces Amercans who can afford health insurance to either buy it or pay a fine and that is one of the provisions that Tea Partiers and Republicans blast as socialized medicine but without such more an more of our hospitals will be forced to close their doors because few Americans can go it alone and pay their own way when the worst happpens.  It is unreasonable to expect doctors and hospitals to just try to suck it up when they get stiffed because someone who could have afforded insurance didn't buy it and found themselves in bankruptcy seeking forgiveness of their medical debts.  Just because bankruptcy courts forgives the debt doesn't mean the debt just goes away.  Basics business 101 says a hospital must pay its bills or close its doors so when we saddle hospitals and doctors with this uncollectable debt they have to raise their rates and pass that uncollectable debt on to shrinking number of us who do have health insurance and the insurance companies are not just setting by and allowing this uncollectable debt be passed on to them, they cap the amounts they will pay so with less money coming in than is going out, what other choice does hospitals have.  It isn't fair that we have to pay for someone elses selfishness and the real solution that Obama health care law attempted to fix was everyone must either have health insurance or be turned away but that isn't what happens.  Imagine the outcry if hospitals turned someone away who can't possibility pay their own way.  Image the kind of health care solutions we could have had if Republicans had earned their money and set down and worked with Democrats for a better law but they didn't and now too little to late St Vincents is closing and so will many more before Americans finally wise up.  It is socialised medicine to take steps to keep our hospital doors open after all we have fire department to put out our fires and everyone has to pay to support that.  We have police departments to maintain law and order and everyone one has to pay to support that so why is forcing everyone to pay to keep good hospitals open so like fire and crime we have a place to go for that help as well?   If the Tea Partiers and Republicans have a better solution lets hear it but the reality is they don't.

So hospitals like St Vincents have little choice but close their doors because most of the law Obama created will not help them and as more and more hospitals fail into this same trap, more and more Americans will die on the extended rides they have to take to get to some far aways ER because Tea Partiers and Republicans failed to their part in finding a better solution.  They have money for war, money for bombs, money for killing but not one penny do they want to spend to allow America to have good hospitals.

It is a myth that America has the best medical system in the world.  Last November I decided I wanted to see just how deadly swine flu was so I began to comb the CDC and the World Health websites and what I learned was shocking.  Did you know that if you contracted the flu, be it the seasonal flu or the swine flu you are 5 times more likely to die in America than in Canada, England, France, or Mexico?  Don't believe me, go look up the numbers for yourself then tell me how great our medical system is in America.  The truth is we have great doctors and hospitals, but most Americans can not afford them so they go untreated until it is too late.  We need to stop investing our money in killing people and start investing our money in helping our own citizens live healthier lives.  It is a worthy cause that pays greater dividends than any war.