Doctor group decries hospital's care for poor - at Senator Frist's Hospita

[Coastie for Truth]

Dr. Amara Balakrishnan, a pediatrician who has practiced in East San Jose for nearly a quarter-century, has watched the changes at Regional Medical Center with rising dismay. In two years, the number of babies delivered at Regional has dropped by more than a third. The number of beds available for sick children has fallen 55 percent. So doctors are forced to send them to hospitals across town -- burdening families who may speak no English, have no car and face multiple bus rides to get there.

Balakrishnan is among a group of doctors who are charging Regional and its parent, the for-profit health care conglomerate HCA, with turning their backs on the low-income patients who live near its East Side campus. Regional officials call the charges ``more emotional than real,'' and say the real problem is that the government doesn't fully cover the cost of treating the poor.

The doctors plan to air their concerns today at a meeting of Santa Clara County's Health and Hospital Committee. "Sick children have no place to go that is near their family," said Balakrishnan, who is chief of women's and children's services at Regional. She said she's heard similar complaints from dozens of area doctors: "It's almost like saying, "Don't come here."

Regional Medical Center, formerly the non-profit Alexian Brothers hospital, was purchased by HCA in 1999. In 2004, HCA abruptly closed Regional's downtown sister hospital, San Jose Medical Center, in a cost-cutting move.

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Whose family owns HCA? Hint--->
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[MadMaddie]

1. Frist believes hospitals are for making money not to render health

to the sick!!!

I hope he burns in hell!!

[Mrspeeker]

2. only the rich should be healthy

thats like 2% of the population, Oh wait a second who's going to fight our wars and stuff and clean up our trash? Oh hell they dont need to be healthy to do slave stuff and get shot in a war, in fact we are saving tons of money for all of our generations of royalty to come.

Maybe we should give terrorists health care so we will have a fit enemy to fight with and all the trillions of dollars spent on defense, when we could have given health care to about everyone in the world, will not be in vain.

Its time to showcase American Military Power by exercising freedom, liberty and democracy in a whole new way.
The Neocon salute
"Hail the empire"

[acmejack]

3. I recently had to go to an HCA hospital's ER

I knew the Doctor who was a retired Army Colonel, from my military & he waived his fee, but when I left they escorted me to the payment office, where I had to produce five hundred dollars for everything other than the Doctor's fee. For profit indeed! Three stitches, two band aids and an ace wrap! wow.