Paper: Hospitals Sent Homeless to Skid Row

[NNN0LHI]

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/H/HOSPITALS_SKID_ROW?SITE=FLTAM&SECTION=US

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Three hospitals acknowledge putting discharged homeless patients into taxicabs and sending them to the downtown skid row area, the Los Angeles Times reported.

Representatives of Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center, Kaiser Permanente West Los Angeles and Martin Luther King Jr./Drew Medical Center said they were helping patients because skid row offers them their best chance of getting services and shelter.

Patients are sent to skid row only if they are healthy enough, the representatives said. snip

Police Capt. Andy Smith said patients don't always reach their destinations, and that he often sees "individuals with not one but sometimes two different hospital bracelets, and people with bandages on, people who are barely ambulatory, and we'll end up calling an ambulance. Sometimes they are in such bad shape they are incoherent."

Gosh this makes me proud to be Merican.

[Erika]

1. Only in Bush's America

What has he and the GOP done to the moral Christian values of this country?

Tax cuts to the rich and unconscionable cuts to the needy.

[rosesaylavee]

2. Hmmm-Mmm. Providing health care for

everyone would be cheaper than having our homeless population or those in the lower income brackets go to the emergency room time after time.

The stupidity of it all and utter lack of understanding of, not only basic compassion for those less fortunate, but the frigging MATH people, the friggin' MATH supports universal healthcare.

It DOESN"T have to be this way.

[Erika]

3. The cost of treatment to the uninsured is paid for by all

in increased hospital rates. Our health care system is a national disgrace.

The working poor can have their wages attached, spiraling them downward to deeper poverty.

[rosesaylavee]

4. Yes. I agree. We are paying for the stupidity... I can't understand

why this is not generally understood. It is not rocket science.