Deep sigh. I don't care how well Bush wants to claim the economy is doing. It isn't going well for a lot of people and the divsion between the have and the have-nots in this country grows larger with each passing day.
While many hospitals in the suburbs surrounding the country's largest cities have closed their doors in the past decade, a new study finds that public hospitals, which typically serve the poor, have been hit the hardest.
Researchers at SUNY Downstate Medical Center in New York City report that about 27 percent of public hospitals in the suburbs of large cities and 16 percent of public hospitals in cities have closed between 1996 and 2002, leaving a potentially serious gap in the availability of health care for the vulnerable populations that rely on these hospitals for their medical needs.
http://www.healthscout.com/news/1/527469/main.html
George Bush can drag out all the economic indicators he wants to describe our economy but this does not mean he is describing the well-being of the United States. Money is not everything. I want to make George Bush and all Republicans stand at a chalkboard and write down a few thousand times so they can drum the concept into their unethical, money-driven brains. But all they would do is try to devise away to make money off the writing and then funnel the money back into their campaigns.
27% of public hospitals in the suburbs and another 16% of public hospitals closing is not a good indicator of how the United States is doing. It shows a serious lack of concern for the healthcare needs of the people.
"We have a shrinking number of [public] facilities, and there is a need for a concerted effort to assess the shape and responsibility for a safety net among the nonprofit and for-profit hospitals," he added. "If we don't, we might see a 'leave-it-to-the-market' effect that could pose some real threats to vulnerable populations."
Leave it to the market effect. Hello! It is a public hospital. We cannot leave it to the market. Capitalism may be what our economic system but this does not mean public hospitals have to be driven by this system. This person is 100% correct. If we leave it up to the market, the poor will be screwed.
What am I saying? The poor are already being screwed in America in terms of health care. We are the only industrialized country refusing to provide healthcare or health insurance to all of the citizens.
I believe there is growing discontent in America regarding the high cost of health insurance and many people simply living without health insurance. And now there the hospitals are being closed leaving the wrong side of the tracks. Sure they are. They want to go the rick suburbs where people have health insurance. Makes sense to me. If I was running a business.
But we are talking about public hospitals and people. Real people with real illnesses.
This bullshit about our high quality of healthcare. Yes, we have good healthcare but we are leaving out 45 million people!
Besides, our healthcare systems does have issues.
Myth One: The United States has the best health care system in the world.
Fact One: The United States ranks 23rd in infant mortality, down from 12th in 1960 and 21st in 1990
Fact Two: The United States ranks 20th in life expectancy for women down from 1st in 1945 and 13th in 1960
Fact Three: The United States ranks 21st in life expectancy for men down from 1st in 1945 and 17th in 1960.
Fact Four: The United States ranks between 50th and 100th in immunizations depending on the immunization. Overall US is 67th, right behind Botswana
Fact Five: Outcome studies on a variety of diseases, such as coronary artery disease, and renal failure show the United States to rank below Canada and a wide variety of industrialized nations.
Conclusion: The United States ranks poorly relative to other industrialized nations in health care despite having the best trained health care providers and the best medical infrastructure of any industrialized nation
http://cthealth.server101.com/the_case_for_universal_health_care_in_the_united_states.htm
I hope Democratic candidates absolutely exploit the health care crisis in America in the 2006 elections. They can win elections on this one. And we need them to win. The Republicans are caring only for the rich and kicking the rest of us to the curb.