2020 Policy Talk: Healthcare

[zork 629]

On 7/3/2019 at 7:14 AM, Bozo_Casanova said:

It’s unacceptable. We need a universal system that covers everyone, and we can’t really pressure costs down without it. Our cost problem is our coverage problem and vice versa.

What if the government option doesn't cover the costs?  Look at this example that might foreshadow a M4A hospital killing ramp up:

April '19:

Quote

...

Suzanne Richards, with experience in Southern California, took over in January as chief executive for both facilities but was fired two months later, leaving Freedman in charge. Freedman said the managers he appointed did not perform well.

As Freedman and his current management team work on a plan to keep Hahnemann in business, health-care executives farther north on Broad Street, at Temple University Health System and Einstein Healthcare Network, are contending with similarly difficult financial conditions because they also serve a large percentage of patients with Medicaid insurance, which does not cover the full cost of care.

...

https://www.inquirer.com/business/hahnemann-hospital-layoffs-freedman-paladin-20190403.html

quickly to yesterday:

Quote

Judge orders Hahnemann to stay open, but hospital will stop delivering babies as of Friday

A Philadelphia Common Pleas Court judge has ordered Hahnemann University Hospital to remain open until a closure plan is approved by the city health commissioner and a bankruptcy judge, even as services continue to be shut down at the debt-ridden safety-net hospital.

More than 800 women were notified by their doctors that they will have to deliver their babies elsewhere as of Friday. The 496-bed institution had just 97 inpatients on Tuesday afternoon, according to the city.

The court order, dated July 3 but recorded Monday, granted the city’s motion in a lawsuit brought by Drexel University to halt further action to close the hospital. Drexel uses Hahnemann as its primary teaching hospital.

State and city regulators have demanded that Hahnemann’s owner, American Academic Health System, keep the doors open until a plan is approved to wind down operations.

 

Yet Drexel University College of Medicine’s department of obstetrics and gynecology sent letters on Tuesday to 819 patients informing them Hahnemann will close its maternity unit on Friday. Last year, the unit delivered about 130 babies a month.

“The hospital will halt all nonemergency surgeries and procedures by July 12, and it is necessary to plan for future surgical procedures and deliveries at another location,” the letter said. “If you are due to give birth in July or August, we will contact you by phone to help arrange for your admission to another Philadelphia hospital."

Significant portions of the 171-year-old institution, including trauma and critical care in the emergency department, have been shutting down since the June 26 announcement that the hospital would close. Four days after that announcement, American Academic Health System filed for bankruptcy for both Hahnemann and St. Christopher’s Hospital for Children, but it is not closing St. Christopher’s.

City officials said they are seeking a safe transition for patients of the hospital, most of whom live in nearby low-income neighborhoods.

“The city accepted Hahnemann’s representation that it no longer had the capability to treat trauma patients. They made the same representation to the state. The city’s goal is to ensure that the closure is safe and orderly,” city spokesperson Mike Dunn said Tuesday evening.

“Hahnemann Hospital continues to operate safely, with adequate staff and supplies,” Dunn said in an email.

As for ending obstetric services, the Philadelphia Department of Public Health said in a statement: “The city is aware of the announcement and continues to work with obstetrics departments across the city to ensure that every pregnant mother and newborn infant gets the best care throughout pregnancy, delivery, and afterwards.”

Whether closing that service violates the court order was not clear Tuesday.

In her order, Judge Nina W. Padilla wrote that Hahnemann is “enjoined from closing, ceasing operations, or in any way further reducing or disrupting services at the Emergency Department of Hahnemann University Hospital” before a closure plan is approved by the city’s health commissioner and a bankruptcy judge.

https://www.inquirer.com/health/hahnemann-closure-maternity-labor-delivery-maternal-mortality-20190709.html

Or maybe it was just a poor purchase and bad management?  Will the government be forcing people to run their business at a loss for the good of society?  Is that sustainable?

Edited July 10, 2019 by zork
forgot second link to philidelphia online newspaper

[bad_teammate 13133]

Medicare Advantage is a fraud and a scam.

- It is a major profit center for private health insurers.

- Fraud in the system costs taxpayers $10+B every year.

Don't believe the lies.

[bad_teammate 13133]

Paul Krugman is mad at Bernie for wanting to eliminate private health insurers.

In 2007, Krugman had a different idea.

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Worse yet, the forces behind privatization not only continue to have the G.O.P. in their pocket, but they have also been finding useful idiots within the newly powerful Democratic coalition. And it’s not just politicians with an eye on campaign contributions. There’s no nice way to say it: the N.A.A.C.P. and the League of United Latin American Citizens have become patsies for the insurance industry.

To appreciate what’s going on, you need to know what has been happening to Medicare in the last few years.

The 2003 Medicare legislation created Part D, the drug benefit for seniors — but unlike the rest of Medicare, Part D isn’t provided directly by the government. Instead, you can get it only through a private drug plan, provided by an insurance company. At the same time, the bill sharply increased payments to Medicare Advantage plans, which also funnel Medicare funds through insurance companies.

As a result, Medicare — originally a system in which the government paid people’s medical bills — is becoming, instead, a system in which the government pays the insurance industry to provide coverage. And a lot of the money never makes it to the people Medicare is supposed to help.

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Right now, centrists and liberals alike are arguing that "Medicare for All" is a lie because Medicare is supposed to include private supplementation. They are literally dancing to the tune of right-wing fiddlers.

 

[Pancho 44492]

2024 healthcare talk

I have a few friends who now go to Mexico for some healthcare stuff. My dental bill after insurance this year was $500. I can only imagine what my sister’s hospital bill was after she gave birth.

Our country is so out of whack.