How the Catholic Bishops Outsmarted Washington (State) Voters

[trotsky]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/valerie-tarico/how-the-catholic-bishops-_b_3322479.html

In other words, west of Moscow, Idaho, and north of Portland, any bishops who want to control what they think of as their sacramental turf --birth, coming of age, sex, marriage, trippy transcendent experiences, and death--haven't got a chance in hell at the ballot box. Washington even has extended statutes of limitations on child sex abuse--something Archbishop Timothy Dolan successfully fended off in New York and Pennsylvania. The Archdiocese of Spokane declared bankruptcy.

But the Vatican hasn't survived for fifteen hundred years by being stupid. And as my devout family members like to say, "Where God closes a door, he opens a window." The window the Bishops found open in Washington takes the form of independent hospitals with financial problems.

Thanks to changes in health care delivery, more and more independent hospitals are being forced to merge with large health care corporations. The pressures include expensive equipment, complex electronic record keeping technologies, and an Obamacare-driven push for greater administrative efficiency. Rather like mom-and-pop hardware stores that survived by becoming Ace franchisees with standardized, streamlined supply and distribution systems, independent health facilities are surviving through acquisitions and mergers with other hospitals and health care corporations.

Of the largest health care corporations in the country, five of six are administered by the Catholic Church including the famously conservative Catholic Health Initiatives which operates the Franciscan brand and has over $15 billion in assets. By the end of 2013, if all proposed mergers go through, 45 percent of Washington hospital beds will be religiously affiliated. In ten counties, 100 percent of hospital facilities will be accountable to religious corporations, which are rapidly buying up outpatient clinics, laboratories, and physician practices as well.

What democracy thwarts the RCC from doing, they are finding other ways to force on everyone, non-Catholics included. Disturbing, and the money they use to do this comes directly from the flock who put it in the collection plate.

[Heddi]

1. Yes. Swedish hospital was "merged" with a catholic hospital group

I can't think of the name. Swedish has TONS of hospitals & campuses all over Western Washington. Now, they're owned by a catholic group and hey! whaddya know! Swedish used to have one of the most comprehensive OB-GYN programs in the state and now they're unsure what to do about those damnable women who want tubals after their c-sections, and whatever will we do about patients needing abortions?

Down south of Seattle, around Tacoma & Federal Way are all the St's...St Joe's St this St That. The St's are getting ready to buy out Harrison Hospital on Bremerton, so yet another hospital where women can't get abortion services or tubal ligations.

There was a piece on NPR just a few weeks ago about Island Hospital, out in the San Juans, who has really poor funding and is being pressured to "merge" with the Catholic group that bought Swedish, and the're really hesitant to because they're the only hospital within reasonable distance for Island County residents, and they don't want those residents health care options, whether it be child bearing or family planning or abortion or end of life decisions to be compromised because of the religious beliefs of the owning company.

Washington also has Initiative 1000, which is the death with dignity act, and so not only are issues regarding abortions and birth control limited by having these Catholic-run hospitals owning like 80% of the hospitals in the state, but also end of life decisions are being held hostage as well, and Dr's who are affiliated with these catholic-owned hospitals are not allowed to dispense end-of-life medications for their patients who are eligible to receive them under Initiative 1000.

As a medical practitioner, it's a very slippery slope and Washingtonians (at least those in the western part of the state) are so secular, I can't believe they let this boondoggle slip under their nose and turn our hospitals into a wing of the Vatican

[Humanist_Activist]

2. This is one of the reasons why Catholic Run hospitals, clinics, etc. should be abolished...

or, if not abolished, they should be required required to provide contraception, abortion, etc. on equal footing other hospitals and such who serve the public first, and their gods second.

[rug]

4. Do you think private hospitals should be abolished?

How about private for-profit hospitals?

[Humanist_Activist]

5. Frankly I think all hospitals should possibly be publicly run as in some countries with NHS...

but I would settle for Single Payer National Health insurance, which keeps the hospitals private, but as non-profits only, under strict rules and regulations regarding standards of care, most governed by current ethical boards.

[rug]

6. I agree with that. It's time health care was treated as a fundamental necessity.

[rug]

3. Why did the private non-Catholic hospital systems agree?

They were not forced to agree. The answer is money and the maximization of cost reduction by centralizing and consolidating health care delivery. The problem is really private health care systems.