They aren't sending heart attack patients with no insurance to the clinics. It's not not an overflow issue, its about the type of care required. I have no idea what your medical background is, but suffice to say, different medical groups have different sorts of specializations. If a poor black person comes in to a clinic with a heart attack, they are getting sent to the hospital. Same as a rich white person. The issue that is trying to be addressed is non-emergency care that can be handled more efficiently and many times with better results in a non-emergency facility. The fact that the emergency room is being used as a primary care source is an artifact of our fucked up insurance system. It has nothing to do with the medical system and the only thing it has to do with race/class is that black people are more likely to be poor and not have insurance.
Believe it or not, this happens in areas without a lot of black people. I work doing healthcare-related software and volunteer helping out a non-profit clinic whose primary mission is with young homeless people. They work with a wide variety of people outside that primary mission as well, but that is their core group. But they also work with a number of other clinics (and yes, hospitals) that have different core focuses and they each refer patients to each other because they are best suited to deal with the issues at hand. And yes, this is happening with groups run by and for plenty of white people. No Republicans though, we kicked them out of Portland a long time ago. Judah On Fri, Sep 12, 2008 at 1:25 PM, Sam <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > They are a tax exempt not for profit hospital in the middle of a very > poor area. And they send the unprofitable patients to clinics. Why not > let the clinics send there overflow to the hospital? Because that > hospital is now meant for the upperclass. If you want to accept tax > dollars for helping the community than help, don't segregate the poor. > > Could you imagine if white folk tried this or a republican? > > > On Fri, Sep 12, 2008 at 1:17 PM, Judah McAuley <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > wrote: > > They think that many people could be better helped in a clinic that is > > better suited to their needs. They established a program to help fund > those > > other groups and steer appropriate patients their way. In what way, pray > > tell, is this not helping those patients? I did not see a single instance > of > > anyone saying that people were not helped. It is a question of how they > are > > helped, who all benefits, and is it the best way to do things. And those > are > > certainly legitimate questions for debate. Your points don't seem to be > > falling into the category of things deserving of legitimate debate thus > far. > > > > Judah > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Adobe® ColdFusion® 8 software 8 is the most important and dramatic release to date Get the Free Trial http://ad.doubleclick.net/clk;203748912;27390454;j Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Community/message.cfm/messageid:269081 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Community/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=89.70.5
