Lack of Health Care Reform Costs 500 Jobs in Louisville

You don't often see causations more direct than this:

Jewish Hospital & St. Mary’s HealthCare is eliminating 500 jobs, citing lower patient volume and a growing number of uninsured patients brought on by the lingering recession.

The cuts announced Wednesday — which represent about 6 percent of the Jewish’s workforce of 8,100 — are the first large-scale job reductions in a Louisville hospital system since the economic downturn.

This is not rocket science, people. Illness strikes the insured and uninsured alike. Insured patients grow the economy by paying for health care. Uninsured patients harm the economy by consuming health care without paying for it. Hospitals who provide health care to people who can't pay for it lose money and have to eliminate jobs. Unemployed people lose their health insurance, and so the cycle continues and gets worse.

Ben Chandler, D-KY-6, owes us one vote in favor of health care reform.

Email Chandler here.

Or call his Lexington office at 859-219-1366, and his Washington office at 202-225-4706.