Saturday, January 07, 2012

Abortion politics trumps access to medical care

Three Kentucky hospitals have moved ahead with a hospital merger, leaving the University of Louisville Hospital in the dust after Gov. Steve Beshear refused to let U of L Hospital join the merger. The new hospital system, called Kentucky One is now the largest network of hospitals in the state.

And U of L Hospital? They're left wondering how they are going to be able to survive at all in a world in which about the only way for a hospital to remain financially sound is to be a part of a larger hospital network.

What is clear from the way things have shaken out is just how committed liberal Democratic politicians like Steve Beshear are to left-wing social groups like the ACLU, The Fairness Campaign, and Planned Parenthood.

The liberals would rather threaten access to medical care for everyone in Louisville than to upset groups whose chief interest is in controlling the population of poor people through "reproductive services."

U of L Hospital is by all accounts in desperate financial straights and is in danger of either going under or having to be bailed out by taxpayers. The Catholic Hospitals didn't need U of L  Hospital, but U of L Hospital needed the Catholic Hospital system bad.

Despite the prospect of another leakage of tax dollars in a system of state government that already leaks like a sieve (just check out the retirement system) Beshear tried to put a halt to the proceedings--an action that resulted in the rest of the hospitals, including Louisville's Jewish Hospital, throwing up their hands and shoving off  without U of L, which was left standing there surrounded by left-wing protesters cheering for their little political victory that won't cost them a dime, but could cost the taxpayers plenty.

Forget the Governor's protestation about U of L being a "public asset that should not be controlled by the private sector," or that the merger was "not in the best interest of the Commonwealth." This was left-wing abortion politics plain and simple.

The hospital was a private entity which operated in conjunction with U of L, which, until 1970 was a private university and is operated by a private non-profit corporation. Beshear's and Attorney General Jack Conway's basic argument is that, since the hospital gets a lot of state money, it's a state hospital. Well, they'll be giving them a lot more money now just to keep them afloat.


And the groups they kowtowed to that put them in this situation won't be the ones paying for it.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

If UofL was still a private university and Dr. Ramsey didn't keep so blurring the lines of public and private, then this wouldn't be an issue. It isn't, he does..voila.

Tom@Crematory Salt Lake City said...

Seems like there is always something getting in the way of the new health care system. Good!! Maybe it's a sign that things should just stay the way they are.