Our Disappearing Hospitals

Why should you care about a spat over a near-bankrupt group of health care facilities outside Washington? As Alec Dubro points out in an article today on TomPaine.com [1], what's happening there is symptomatic of a larger national problem of health care for the poor and uninsured.

Get past the dispute between the county and the Maryland state legislature over funding and you will find the consequences of shouldering a profit-driven health care system with the responsibility for serving the needs of the poor.

We are seeing the effects throughout the country, from New Orleans—where there is an unconscionable deadlock over replacing health care facilities lost during Hurricane Katrina [2]—to dozens of other low-income and rural communities.

It is one more reason why we need to get serious about a new approach to providing health care for all.