How to Dismantle a Public Health System

As the King/Drew fiasco continues, I decided to crunch some numbers.

I think I've figured out what's wrong with the hospital: yesterday's article, Hospital Turmoil to Affect Staffing, mentioned that there is a 5000 job shortage of healthcare workers in the county.

I looked into the County budget. Since 1999, there has been a roughly 15% cut in real dollars spent on health and social services. This, during a period when the percentage of uninsured has increased by about 4%. For the community that King/Drew serves, we're looking at over 50% of the population being uninsured. On top of this is the dramatic increase in medical costs over the same period, something like 75%, I think. This really puts Yaroslavsky's comment that "Money is not the issue" into perspective. Since he's been on the County Board of Supervisors since 1994, he's played an active role in gutting local health care.

And what is their "plan"? Set it up so other county hospitals collapse, too. They want to push King/Drew onto Harbor, where staff is already stretched thin. Rumors are floating that the director there will resign if their load is doubled like that. And what about services? They want to cut the number of beds down to less than 20% of what it is now. They are even threatening to shut the hospital down temporarily while they "reorganize".

King/Drew was built because of the Watts Riots. It is going to take at least that much to keep it, and a lot more than that to fix health care in L.A. County.