Sunday, November 22, 2009

Why hospitals are closing

From the NY Times:

Each had crossed the border years before, smuggled across the desert by a coyote, never imagining the journey would lead to a drab and dusty clinic on the ninth floor of Grady Memorial Hospital in Atlanta.

Some knew before the crossing that they had diabetes or lupus or high blood pressure, but it was only after they arrived that their kidneys began to fail. To survive, they needed dialysis at a cost of about $50,000 a year, which their sporadic work as housekeepers, painters and laborers could not begin to cover.

And so they turned to Grady, a taxpayer-supported safety-net hospital that would provide dialysis to anyone in need, even illegal immigrants with no insurance or ability to pay. Every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday morning, the 15 or so patients would settle into their recliners, four to a room, and while away the monotonous three-hour treatments by chitchatting in Spanish.

That all changed on Oct. 4, when the strapped public hospital closed its outpatient dialysis clinic, leaving 51 patients — almost all illegal immigrants — in a life-or-death limbo.

For Grady, which has served Atlanta’s poor for 117 years, it was an excruciating choice, a stark reflection of what happens when the country’s inadequate health care system confronts its defective immigration policy.

Like other hospitals, particularly public hospitals, Grady has been left to provide costly treatments to nonpaying illegal residents who most likely could not have obtained such care in their home countries. American taxpayers and health care consumers have borne the expense.

Over time, the mounting losses have compromised Grady’s charitable mission, forcing layoffs, increases in fees and the elimination of services.

“Years and years of providing this free care has led Grady to the breaking point,” said Matt Gove, one of the hospital’s senior vice presidents. “If we don’t make the gut-wrenching decisions now, there won’t be a Grady later. Then, everyone loses.”

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

Dear Archie and Ediths.

These are the tweeded. This is your future.

Do not say anything bad about them.

Your friends

Queens Boro Hall.

Anonymous said...

Dear Archie and Ediths.

These are the tweeded. This is your future.

Do not say anything bad about them.

Your friends

Queens Boro Hall.
--------------------
fuck you asshole! This is why our health care is such a crisis. That hospital reminds me why St. John's and St. Mary was closed. It is all these illegals sucking us Americans dry. We need to round them all up and deport them. And their little children too.

Taxpayer said...

Unemployment is not slowing down. Instead we could easily reach depression levels.

The dollar is falling. Taxes are rising. Housing prices are falling and property taxes are increasing.

The cost of medical care is likely to increase to out-of-reach levels, and medical care will be rationed by law. The government will set costs for medical care and pay less to doctors.

Doctors will flee - just like they did from other countries that pulled this Socialist stunt.

If there is no place to flee, doctors will switch careers. Why suffer for ingrates when there are far less stressful occupations that would pay more than the government chooses to pay?

And we are supposed to worry about illegal aliens who take jobs from our citizens, take welfare from our citizens, and want medical care we plan to take away from our citizens?

Let them go back home and try this in their own home country - where they are NOT illegal aliens.

Babs said...

our borders are NOT closed simply because there are those in our country who do NOT WANT THEM CLOSED.

Therefore our immigration problem is more the fault of our contractors who employ them at a cost slightly more than slave labor than it is the illegals themselves.

Anonymous said...

Why not tell Illegals you are welcome and will get a green card if you buy a house with 50% down and continue to pay the mortgage each month?

otherwise stay in your own country

karl said...

can someone define "tweed" for me? i know i'm asking for it, but this is a serious request

Anonymous said...

"Tweed" as in the 19th century crooked "boss" politician William Marcy Tweed.

"Boss" Tweed rivaled P.T. Barnum in putting on a great show...but all the time pulling the wool over dumb ass people's (maybe like yourself) eyes.

To be "tweeded" means to be played the fool...f----d over.

i.e.
Local clubhouse pols continue to fart in their constituents faces expecting them to believe it's Chanel #5. And they do...because they've been "tweeded" far too long!

If you believe the lies and BS spewed by these Democ-rats...then you've been been duped.

They've emptied your pockets to fill theirs.

Take down whatever religious icon you've got hanging on your wall and replace it with the visage of "boss" Tweed....the master of greed and deception.

You've been converted to the cult of stupidity...amen!

Will that now suffice...as to your original inquiry about "tweed"?

You may Google for any further historical details you require.

P.S.
The building behind New York City Hall is the old Tweed Court House.
How appropriate!

Gary A said...

Local clubhouse pols continue to fart in their constituents faces expecting them to believe it's Chanel #5.
ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
I resemble those remarks!

"Honest Joe" Crowley's Friend said...

peeple, plees, dont mak fonn. in mi coontri we hav no guud medicin.

ef you wan me to woosh de deshes, and i geet seeck, maybe like tifoid mary you get eseck too.

karl said...

why are you calling me a dumb ass for asking a question you aggressive fuck?

why don't you put your name on your post you pussy?

For Our Friend Karl said...

time to brush this off for you youngsters to the board, and for you vets out there, an old standby that brings fond memories:

DEFINITION OF 'TWEEDING'


Boss Tweed: That's the building of our country right there, Mr. Cutting. Americans aborning.
Bill the Butcher: I don't see no Americans. I see trespassers, Irish harps. Do a job for a nickel what a nigger does for a dime and a white man used to get a quarter for. What have they done? Name one thing they've contributed.
Boss Tweed: Votes.

Boss Tweed: The appearance of law must be upheld, especially when it's being broken.

Boss Tweed: We're burying a lot of votes tonight.

Boss Tweed: Remember the first rule of politics. The ballots don't make the results, the counters make the results. The counters. Keep counting

Boss Tweed: You may or may not know, Bill, that everyday I go down to the waterfront with hot soup for the Irish as they come ashore. Its part of building a political base.

Killoran: Monk's already won by three thousand more votes than there are voters.
Boss Tweed: Only three? Make it twenty, thirty. We don't nee a victory. We need a Roman triumph.

[as Monk McGinn runs for Sheriff]
Boss Tweed: That man was right born for this.
Amsterdam Vallon: He's killed 44 men, and laid low a couple hundred more.
Boss Tweed: Is that right? We should have run him for mayor.

Boss Tweed: Bill, I can't get a days work done for all the good citizens coming in here to harass me about crime in the Points. Some even go so far as to accuse Tammany of connivance in this so-called rampant criminality. What am I to do? I can't have this. Something has to be done.
Bill: What do you have in mind?
Boss Tweed: I don't know. I think maybe we should hang someone.

Boss Tweed: You're a good one for the fighting, Bill. But you can't fight forever.
Bill: I can go down doing it.
Boss Tweed: And you will!
Bill: What did you say?
Boss Tweed: I said, you're turning your back on the future.
Bill: Its not our future.