The Catholicization of the US Healthcare System

[Puppycow]

Women’s Health Care at Risk (NY Times Editorial)

A wave of mergers between Roman Catholic and secular hospitals is threatening to deprive women in many areas of the country of ready access to important reproductive services. Catholic hospitals that merge or form partnerships with secular hospitals often try to impose religious restrictions against abortions, contraception and sterilization on the whole system.

This can put an unacceptable burden on women, especially low-income women and those who live in smaller communities where there are fewer health care options. State regulators should closely examine such mergers and use whatever powers they have to block those that diminish women’s access to medical care.

Gov. Steve Beshear of Kentucky, for example, recently turned down a bid by a Catholic health system to merge with a public hospital that is the chief provider of indigent care in Louisville. He cited concerns about loss of control of a public asset and restrictions on reproductive services.

The nation’s 600 Catholic hospitals are an important part of the health care system. They treat one-sixth of all hospital patients, and are sometimes the only hospital in a small community. They receive most of their operating income from public insurance programs like Medicare and Medicaid and from private insurers, not from the Catholic Church. They are free to deliver care in accord with their religious principles, but states and communities have an obligation to make sure that reproductive care remains available. This should be a central goal for government officials who have a role in approving such consolidations.

For the price we pay for Medicare and Medicaid, we could have a National Health Service like the UK or Canada.

The annual growth in spending on Medicare in the US has averaged 12% since the 1970s^[1], although it has come down in recent years, whereas the average annual growth in the UK's NHS budget has been a much more modest 4.9%^[2].

 

[BenBurch]

We just need to prosecute the Catholic church under RICO over the pedophilia, and seize its assets. Then we have a ready-made NHS.

 

[Vorticity]

We just need to prosecute the Catholic church under RICO over the pedophilia, and seize its assets. Then we have a ready-made NHS.

Well, the sudden glut of solid-gold tchotchkes on the market would certainly drive down the price of specie.

 

[WildCat]

For the price we pay for Medicare and Medicaid, we could have a National Health Service like the UK or Canada.

Not without some drastic reforms. Costs in the US are out of control, and reform requires slaughtering some sacred cows.