Texas Health Resources unwittingly enters the health care debate
THR announced a tiny layoff this week that spurred a speculative piece in the Dallas Morning News that had a tone somewhere along the lines of OHMYGOD LAYOFFS IN A HOSPITAL BECAUSE OF UNINSURED PATIENTS NOT PAYING THEIR BILLS ARE GOING TO BANKRUPT THE HUGE HOSPITAL SYSTEM.
Reality: As of March 31, Texas Health had $1 billion in cash, down 6 percent from year-end 2008 and 22 percent from year-end 2007.
Let’s keep it in perspective folks. Yes, there are millions of uninsured and under-insured and millions subjected to pre-existing condition clauses. There are millions of us that resent the amount of premiums we have to pay and our high copays and deductibles that used to be awesomely low because we are smart and have better jobs than poor and dumb people that have high deductibles and coinsurances, etc so on and so forth.
An don’t get me started on the “yellers” at town hall meetings. Dear God I hate yelling. If we could implement a national health plan that would cut vocal chords of the stupid at an early age, I would be all for it! I’ll go lobby congress tomorrow for that one.
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PD - We need to sterlize everyone at birth. Then, if they pass all parenting, history, insurability, genetic, and financial tests they will be un-sterlized and returned to fecundity. Thus in a generation or two, no more stupid, no more poor, no more uninsured, no more bankruptcy, no more need for social programs, no more abortion. All will be hunky-dory….
That article reeks of THR media liaison’s B.S. - they do a good job of making the local media their mouthpiece. But, before anyone starts feeling bad about our dear ‘ol company, let me just say that these layoffs appears to be restructuring in nature and to see the excuse of “the economy” being used is really tacky, even for a cheapsake/tacky company like THR (they continually ask employees to find ways to save money like removing all the typical amenities from break rooms).
The saddest part is - some of these employees have been here for decades and now are being told that if they don’t accept extremely low-paying jobs that have been “found” for them, that they will lose their ENTIRE compensation! What a compassionate place to work.