Unacceptable. Profits before patients.

Today's front page of the Wall Street Journal had this headline:

Bad Debts Prompt Hospitals to Demand Patients' Cash Upfront

The article basically points out that many hospitals are now requiring cash on the barrelhead before you can get chemotherapy if you have cancer.

Apparently this is:
- Even if you HAVE insurance
- Even at "non-profit" hospitals.

Yes folks, if you are uninsured or under-insured, try not to expose yourself to our filthy air, filthy soil, pesticide-laden produce, and MTBE-laden water. Because if you get cancer, and you don't have a family member willing and able to mortgage their house and come up with $60,000 - $150,000 then you're just gonna die, sucka.

Last week, when I was in Atlanta, I learned that one of my coworkers there - a young man in his twenties, fresh out of college - has cancer throughout his body. Though the prognosis is grim, this fellow was very upbeat and hopeful because he had been referred to the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston.

M.D. Anderson, specifially mentioned in the WSJ article, is a non-profit extension of the University of Texas system, with an endowment of $1.88 Billion, and an income last year of $310 Milliion. The President of M.D. Anderson is John Mendelsohn, who earned $1,180,000 last year. Anyone in Texas who has ever known someone with cancer knows that this place has a stellar reputation.

What is unfortunate is that M.D. Anderson is mentioned in the report as having gained a 44% increase in income while lowering its indigent care expenses significantly over the past several years.

My young friend is lucky that our employer has some damn good medical insurance.

That a state-chartered hospital like M.D. Anderson could be allowed to withhold care, even while stacking up cash and lavishing their executives is an outrage. The legislature ought to step in and put a stop to this nonsense.

IT IS TIME FOR UNIVERSAL SINGLE-PAYER HEALTH CARE.

YOU ARE SOAKING IN IT. DEMAND TO GET WHAT YOU ARE PAYING FOR.

P.S. Don't tell the folks in my district that I read the Wall Street Journal.