Corporations and the Free Market Making Ebola Worse

Interesting that all the U.S. hospitals where Ebola patients have recovered without infecting any hospital workers are all government-run non-profit hospitals.

While the ONLY U.S. hospital where an Ebola patient died AND hospital workers got infected with the virus is a corporate-owned, private-industry, for-profit medical industry facility.

karoli at Crooks and Liars:

Never mind that private, for-profit hospital who ignored CDC protocols with regard to Ebola. The one that sent Mr. Duncan home with antibiotics for a deadly viral infection. Never mind that, because it's easier for lazy people like Bruni to blame Obama, and by extension, all Democrats everywhere.

This is why we cannot have nice things. We have no surgeon general, but that's of no moment because the whiny ass Republicans bleated for an Ebola czar and now that they have one, they're criticizing the president for not appointing a doctor.

Look over there and you'll miss the forest for the trees! Also, on November 5th there will be little talk, if any, about Ebola. I guarantee it. Just like there's no talk about the "border crisis" or the IRS or even Benghazi!.

If there is something to fear about Ebola, it's how private hospitals are dealing with it. A TPM reader paints a terrifying picture:

SNIP

So once again, I must reiterate: Why is it that the for-profit hospital system isn't taking any of the heat for their lack of preparedness? Why aren't states enforcing the protocols? Why is all of this Obama's fault? Of course it's not his fault. It's just convenient for lazy corporate journalists to blame it on him rather than actually thinking it through.

I seriously hope we kick Republicans' asses on November 4th and put these shameless hacks out to pasture forever.

Steve M:

In a Washington Post op-ed published Monday, DeMoro tied our Ebola problems to the private, for-profit nature of our health care system:

... Ebola is exposing a broader problem: the sober reality of our fragmented, uncoordinated private health-care system. We have enormous health-care resources in the United States. What we lack is a national, integrated system needed to respond effectively to a severe national threat such as Ebola.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issues guidelines but has no authority to enforce them. Hospitals have wide latitude to pick and choose what protocols they will follow; too often in a corporate medical system those decisions are based on budget priorities, not what is best for the health and safety of patients and caregivers. Congress and state lawmakers put few mandates on what hospitals must do in the face of pandemics or other emergencies, and local health officials do not have the authority to direct procedures and protocols at hospitals.

Where other countries -- notably Canada, which took action after its vulnerabilities were exposed by the 2003 SARS epidemic -- have empowered their public health agencies to coordinate local, state and federal detection and response efforts for pandemics, the United States cut funding for its already-weak system. Federal funding for public health preparedness and response activities was $1 billion less in fiscal 2013 than 2002....

Why do we know what went on in Texas Health Presbyterian when Thomas Duncan came in? Because a union was able to tell us. Conservatives would prefer an America in which no health care workers were unionized at all. They should remember that when they're quoting National Nurses United.

To sum up:  Government and Unions: Getting it right and saving lives.  For-profit corporations: Fucking up and killing people.