How are your hospitals doing?

Politics
1

I think this belongs in politics because of the current plan to get rid of the Affordable Care Act.

Hospitals and insurance companies seem to be in disarray as they wait for the mess to play out.

And many hospitals - in Texas at least - seem to be going under.

One hospital, built in 2014, closed its doors 4 years later.

Another, newly built, never opened because they couldn’t pay off their debt, apparently.

So, how’s the financial health of the hospitals - and for that matter care centers and rehab facilities - in your cities?

2

This article was in the NYT yesterday.

I live in a urban metropolitan area. We have probably 10 hospitals, one of which is affiliated with a medical school and is also a trauma center.

We also keep getting new urgent care centers that are affiliated with the hospitals and many doctor groups have their own, too. UC’s are everywhere now.

There is even an urgent care specifically for orthopedic issues. I didn’t even know it existed until I needed a cortisone shot in my elbow while suffering a horrible flare and I couldn’t get in to see my own doctor that day.

3

What do you expect when business and government are bunkmates? They should know better because the worm can turn on a dime.

4

Free market says medical care cannot make enough profit in ever more sparsely populated rural areas.

Free market says expensive and diverse medical care is going to be more and more centered in densely populated urban areas.

1 Like
5

Beware the cortisone, it can screw you up. Got one when i had a severe shoulder flare up, next time it happened they refused to give me one because it can speed up deterioration of the joints.

6

If the government feels the need to intervene they can do so by opening their own clinics in rural areas.

7

Yea, I live in a similar area. Rich with medical options, we even have an orthopedic urgent care too. It is specifically one of the reasons I will continue living here.

I struggle with sympathy anymore for people who live in remoter rural areas, who then cry about having to travel 200 miles for care. That’s just how it is.

9

Nope. I don’t want them to do that. I’m happy with government not intervening.

10

Thank you. I know the risks. I also had 10 PT sessions for it after shot and I’m now doing exercises at home for it.

You can only get two shots a year. I had that about 10 years ago in same elbow and was fine until this spring. I’m also taking summer off from playing tennis and in my yoga class, not putting any weight on that arm (which is what set off the flare,)

11

Even in single payer we have resources put together in such a way to curb costs.

I am sitting in a family waiting room right now waiting on my dad who is having eye surgery. Funny how despite the fear jobs of the right I see so many older people still getting surgery.

The hospital is an hour away but it specializes in eye surgery. Because it is hooked up to a medical university there are many hospitals in this city with many specialists. I came to one hospital here to have my epilepsy fixed and brain tumor removed. Then another one here to see people who specialize in brain cancer.

The hospitals in my city special in mental health and elderly care as well as stomach surgeries.

Connies here are big proponents of closing rural hospitals to save money.

13

You will pay regardless, if you want universal health care or even ACA. Face the facts, when government gets involved, the people are the ones who bleed.

14

County I live in has a population of 20 thousand (two neighboring counties have a combined population of 4,000). The hospital in my city serves the three counties and over the past three years has undergone two expansions. The hospital also runs emergency care clinics in the other two counties (if the clinics can’t handle the patient, they transfer them to the main hospital). For ambulance dalls in one of the two counties, the clinic has doctors that will stabalize the patient before sending them on to the main hospital.

15

Thriving
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