Healthcare going forward

[rareboy]

The U.S. doesn't have as many hospitals as are really needed; people here are often hauled by ambulance as much as 120 miles away because of it.

In some of our rural areas, depending on the level of care needed, we also have some long traffic distances. But we also have Ornge which transports by helicopter...sometimes right from accident sites to
quaternary care centres in the cities. In Ontario, the guiding principle in the 1990's was that no one should be farther away than a 30 minute drive from a primary care emergency department.

The challenge is staffing small emergency departments 24/7.

Hard to recruit people out in wilds to do it.

 

[KaraBulut]

The U.S. doesn't have as many hospitals as are really needed; people here are often hauled by ambulance as much as 120 miles away because of it.

Hospitals are licensed by their state for a fixed number of beds. There's a process by which healthcare organizations submit requests to add/delete beds. They have to provide documentation supporting changes to their license.

If there aren't enough beds in your region, it's not because there are not enough hospitals. It's because no healthcare organization wants to invest in your area. It used to be that local communities would build hospitals and in some cases, there was a local hospital district that was supported by taxpayer money. Part of the Republican tax-cutting strategy is to eliminate public hospital districts and sell those hospitals to larger chains for a profit.

What I'm seeing more and more of is that a small community hospital has too many non-paying patients and they can't remain profitable. The hospital either closes or sells to a big hospital chain. The big hospital chain keeps the emergency room open, closes services that aren't profitable and then they use the local hospital as a referral center to their big city hospital. This is particularly noticeable in the number of hospitals that are dropping obstetrics services- with Medicaid paying for about 50% of newborn care and the additional cost of maintaining a 24h/7 day per week staffing, it's just cheaper to have patients drive a couple hours to a larger hospital when they are in labor and let the ER docs handle emergency antepartum care.

 

[rareboy]

Just a reminder as millions and millions are about to lose coverage from Medicaid
and insurers are only in it to increase stockholder returns and upper management salaries and bonuses.

 

[rareboy]

Hopefully they will prevail over this madman.

 

[rareboy]

Another juggernaut lawsuit against RFK and Co.

Six of the US’s most prominent medical organizations and an unnamed physician have teamed up to sue health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr, as well as the heads of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and National Institutes of Health (NIH), over what’s been called a “baseless and uninformed” decision to stop recommending COVID-19 vaccines for healthy children and pregnant women.

The AAP is one of the seven plaintiffs in a lawsuit filed on July 7, joined by the American College of Physicians (ACP), American Public Health Association (APHA), Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA), Massachusetts Public Health Alliance (MPHA), Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine (SMFM), and an anonymous pregnant physician who is at risk of catching COVID-19 but unable to get a booster.

6 Leading Medical Organizations Team Up To Sue RFK Jr Over COVID-19 Vaccine Policy

The heads of the FDA, CDC, and NIH are also named as defendants in the suit.

www.iflscience.com

 

[Kulindahr]

Do we really think that lawsuits will make a difference?

 

[Kulindahr]

Just a reminder --

 

[rareboy]

 

[rareboy]

Healthcare in the US is only available in some states if the care provider has no religious objections.

Denied pre-natal care because she was unmarried. (and probably black). Great pretext for racist policies, I will bet.

The state has seen a decline in OB-GYNs since Tennessee’s total abortion ban went into effect. Tennessee has the highest maternal mortality rate in the country and ranks among the worst for infant mortality. Combine that with the refusal to expand Medicaid and the lack of rural maternity care, and it’s no surprise Tennessee was named the worst state in the nation to live in, by a recent CNBC study.

Exclusive: Pregnant Woman in Tennessee Denied Care for Being Unmarried (Updated)

The 2025 Medical Ethics Defense Act allows physicians to deny care to patients whose "lifestyles" they disagree with

wellsrachelm.substack.com

 

[Kulindahr]

 

[rareboy]

Another reason hospitals in the US are failing?

Predatory companies buying the buildings and then leasing them back until they go bankrupt.

The landlord gutting America’s hospitals

Medical Properties Trust buys up hospitals and then leases them back to health care systems. Dozens of its hospitals have gone belly up.

www.motherjones.com

 

[Kulindahr]

I'm SO glad that Adventist Health took over our local hospital!

When will Americans wake up?

Here's an idea: any time a hospital goes bankrupt, the property owner gets fined 125% of the value of the facilities including every inventory item that should be present, not just the ones that are.

 

[rareboy]

^ They are too clever for that. They just own the real estate. The other private company operating the hospital is responsible for everything else.

I'll bet some of these were community or publicly owned until someone thought a cash grab would be good to make capital improvements on a leased building....and then it all starts to unreavel from there.

 

[KaraBulut]

It's a common venture capital (aka "vulture capital") ploy. The investors come in and they sell off the assets, including the real estate. Then they lease back the real estate to the business. It's what killed companies like Toys-R-Us.

How vulture capitalists ate Toys 'R' Us

Hope you enjoyed your leveraged buyout, guys — because 33,000 workers sure didn't

theweek.com

 

[rareboy]

It is a 4 alarm dumspter fire in the US.

 

[rareboy]

There is no plan.

 

[rareboy]

​

 

[Alistair]

 

[rareboy]

There is no plan. There will be no plan. In 20 years, Republicons have never come up with a plan.

For Trump and Project 2025, it is only about destroying Obamacare and Medicare.

 

[NotHardUp1]

There is no plan.

They're going to eat the sick. It reduces health care costs and the numbers on disability.