A Case Study Of Why Nationalized Health Care Will Not Work

The country with the worst health care evah, is starting to refuse to continue treating illegal aliens.

Wait. What did I just write? You mean people from other countries are coming to America and getting medical treatment, in the case of this story, long term sustained treatment, all at no cost to them, just to the taxpayers?

This is a long convoluted story and one with a mostly local angle to it, but it is emblematic of the healthcare debate currently raging in this country. In a nutshell, Grady hospital is an Atlanta hospital which handles a lot of indigent and uninsured patients. In spite of the hospital being riddled with years of graft and piss poor management they had always been able to count on receiving funds from the surrounding counties, city and state to continue operating. Now that tough economic times are here, and in Grady's case the mask had slipped before the current recession, they are having to answer for their shoddy accounting and since they are not coming up with good answers those funds are being cut off. Well as a result they are having to curtail services, like in the case of this story, dialysis services.

While reading the story, rife with the usual bungling that has become synonymous with Grady Hospital, there were a couple of lines that jumped out at me.

Like this.

The hospital had said the dialysis unit would close Sunday and the hospital hoped to send about 90 patients — some of whom are illegal immigrants — out of state, back to their home countries or to local clinics. As many as 10 patients have already moved out of state. For many, Grady had been their last resort for dialysis care.

And this.

The restraining order also compels the hospital to stop the hospital’s controversial plan to pay the relocation costs of some patients to move to another state or back to their home country.

The judge’s action came as a relief to Ignacio Godinez Lopez, an illegal immigrant from Mexico, who is a laid-off home remodeler.

This little bit seems to fly in the face of those who wish to paint a portrait of America being a country which has sick and injured people lined up like cord wood on the sidewalks outside hospitals.

Grady officials have repeatedly assured patients and the public that no patient would be left without care. They said they found states that provide Medicaid assistance for illegal immigrants for outpatient dialysis treatment. Georgia does not.

But officials of three of those states — North Carolina, New Jersey and Virginia — told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution Thursday that they do not offer Medicaid assistance for illegal immigrants for outpatient dialysis treatment.

They only provide Medicaid assistance for illegal immigrants for emergency services provided through an emergency room. None of the three states has a special program for illegals needing ongoing outpatient dialysis.

Grady announced back in July that they were closing their dialysis center and at that time a coalition was formed to oppose it. Grady assured folks they had a plan. Grady's plan appears to have some holes in it, but the advocacy group lobbying to force a bankrupt Grady to continue to offer this service is wrong also. Instead of beating up on the mis-management at Grady they need to come up with a viable alternative. They continue to argue from the point of view that the taxpayers must remain on the hook.

Why is this issue such a hot button topic? Grady is also a trauma hospital and they are trying to remain operational. By being forced to continue services for which they are not getting reimbursed for and have no alternative money stream the entire hospital is in danger of closing. Grady has never been a particularly good trauma center either, in my opinion, but it is where all our gunshot and vehicle accident victims are taken for treatment, but I can tell you the survivability rate at Grady is far less then a field hospital in Iraq.

Now those that are in favor of nationalized health care will use this as an example of why we need a government run program. Let's think about this a minute. The illegals use this hospital because they can't go anywhere else. With government subsidizing such action the roles of those for whom the taxpayer will have to support would explode. Think about it. If you knew of any other business offering something for free, what are the odds that that business would suddenly be swamped. Just ask Kentucky Fried Chicken what happens. Remember the Oprah effect?

A lot of Grady's problems are self inflicted in that they never worried about expenses since they always had a ready source of revenue from the taxpayers. Imagine if every health care facility in the country acted the same way. The government covers expenses by raising taxes. They believe they have an inexhaustible supply, but like we see here, while the federal government can operate in such a fashion, local and state governments do have such a luxury.

No, I am not advocating throwing these folks out on the street. What I am saying is that the in case of the illegals they need to be returned home. For those that are receiving treatment, and are citizens, every effort needs to be made to get them on the appropriate existing insurance, probably Medicaid, and get them to an appropriate clinic for treatment. We have scores of dialysis clinics in the Atlanta area so that should not be a problem. Use the existing system. There is no need to reinvent the wheel. Forcing the hospital to continue supplying services which are draining it's limited resources and therefore threatening to cause the entire hospital to go out of business doesn't make much sense. This however seems to be the liberals plan in regards to healthcare, kill the patient to cure a cold.

Grady's financial problems did not begin because of the recession, they just got exposed because of it. Once the taxpayers started demanding receipts for their tax dollars, the shortfalls could no longer be hidden or absorbed. If action had been taken years ago when problems at this hospital had been brought to light, stories like this would not exist. If the American people give the federal government what amounts to a credit card with an unlimited limit on it this is what will happen nationwide. The federal government will continue to raise taxes, or invent some little cute catchphrase, to fund it or if that is not possible simply cut off services.