Thursday, November 21, 2013

People are dying from treatable diseases because of no insurance.

UTMB is no longer the state-subsidized charity hospital it used to be. The changes began before Hurricane Ike in 2008. But after the storm, UTMB administrators drastically  cut charity care and moved clinics to the mainland, where there are more paying patients. The old motto “Here for the Health of Texas” was replaced by “Working together to work wonders.” Among those wonders are a new surgical tower and a plan to capitalize on Galveston’s semi-tropical charm by attracting wealthy  healthcare tourists from abroad. Medical care for the poor is not, apparently, among the wonders. Whereas UTMB accepted 77 percent of charity referrals in 2005, it was only taking 9 percent in 2011.

http://www.alternet.org/i-watched-my-patients-die-treatable-diseases-because-they-were-poor?page=0%2C1&akid=11168.294211.ySwQb1&rd=1&src=newsletter926953&t=3

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