People will use community hospitals - that's what you pay your tax dollars into so you will use them. The idea of 'people not wanting to use a community hospital' is interesting - it speaks to a number of different issues. The number of poor use the hospital but the number of insured don't want to? Why is that? The hospital is only good for poor people? The service is only good for poor people? Would we rather not change the way the hospitals do business for all the people instead of creating greater social issues by fostering a belief that those with insurance and their families are somehow more deserving and better than others?
I was hoping you would ask that. Really. There are several reasons.
1. What agencies do you think county employees work for? Hmmmm....county jail, county sherriff, county social services, county-based EMT and ambulance services, etc etc. So NO, if I were a county employee I would not want to be hospitalized at the facility where I am most likely to run into people who have, ah, encountered my 'services.'
2. Additionally, there is a great divide here in Fresno culturally. There are many cultures which are here (a good thing) but many have neither an understanding nor respect of our rules. Namely, two visitors at a time. No visitors after 8. Have you ever had the pleasure of sharing a hospital room with a Southeast Asian patient who has 34 relatives squeezed into the space next to you, while your two visitors are reduced to yelling above the din? I didn't think so. Of course this says nothing about hospital quality of care, and everything about social differences. However it speaks to the fact that YES people have preferences about their medical care that have NOTHING to do with the quality of said care.
In a system that is implemented for all people via national healthcare, hospitals and doctors are paid proportionately according to a systematic approved baseline.
This pretty much says it all. Who 'systematically' approves the baseline? The same people who are 'approving' it now, causing facilities to go bankrupt?
You don't need HMO' s in a national healthcare system.
LOL what do you think a National Healthcare system is? Have you read the freaking proposals? It's a gatekeeper system, ooooh, shockingly, also known as an HMO.
Lisa
Can read between the lines Class