Reply #31: From one "Texas gal" to another, you're wrong in so many ways. Where to start? [View All]

[moc]

FWIW, I live in North Texas and I work in public health, so I have more than a passing level of information regarding the status of healthcare in this part of the country.

The "old money" doesn't keep Parkland open. Parkland is on the verge of bankruptcy, as are many public hospitals in other parts of the state and the country. One challenge for Parkland is serving the surging uninsured population, not only in Dallas County but in the outlying counties. Technically, Parkland is only supposed to serve Dallas county residents, but because of the lack of health care resources for uninsured in suburban counties, residents from those outlying counties are swamping Parkland resources. Because of rapidly changing demographics in Collin County, for example, there is a crisis with regards to uninsured in that county.

If you want to be better informed, I urge you to review the presentation by our local NPR station, KERA, called "Life in the Balance". (See http://www.kera.org/lifeinthebalance/). Although this aired several years ago, it is excellent. It will give you a much more realistic perspective on health care in this area.

The major problem with your "capitalism" solution is the assumption that the "bottom line" will enhance health care service delivery. The problem is that the delivery of health care cannot be a profit-making endeavor. Making profits and insuring the health of a population are mutually exclusive. You seem to think that capitalism only "weeds" out on the provider side. No, what it does is "weeds" out the sick on the "consumer" side. Hence, we get pre-existing condition exclusions and denials of claims by insurers. When profit is the motivating factor in delivering health care, people die.