Kentucky Hospitals Likely To Close And Counties Without A Hospital In That Event!

Over the last few weeks, we have all heard a lot in the news media about how TRAITOR Trump's "Big, Vicious, Ugly Bill" will do myriad kinds of harm to America, especially to rural America, the lower and middle classes, hospitals, education, health care in general, vaccines and vaccine production, Medicaid, Medicare, WIC, SNAP or Food Stamps, agriculture, food safety, airline safety, the arts and sciences, and several other critical aspects of life in America. It will also add about 4 TRILLION DOLLARS to the budget deficit, and all of this damage is being done to provide vast unnecessary tax cuts to the rich, super rich, and corporations. Every word you have heard about the upcoming damage is true! The damage is intentional, purposeful, and will cost thousands of lives across this country in addition to the vast economic damage it will do. But in this blog post, I just want to address one aspect of that damage, the damage to hospitals and health care in Kentucky. Every legitimate news agency and policy analysis corporation is telling us the same thing. If the proposed cuts to Medicaid are approved (and it appears they almost certainly will be approved) thousands of hospitals, especially rural hospitals will be forced to close due to lack of income. Hundreds of thousands of the poorest, and often sickest Americans will lose their access to health care, and thousands of those people will die along with the hospitals which have been serving them. According to the Kentucky Center For Economic Policy, there are 35 hospitals in Kentucky which are likely to close on that list of hospitals. Since I first heard that dire forecast, I have been studying the issue both on my own and in consulations with others who understand the issues and politics involved. Two of the people I have discussed this with in depth are a retired attorney who spent her career in Eastern Kentucky and comes from a very politically centered family, and a retired nurse who spent her career working in one of the poorest counties in the state which does not have a hospital at this time to lose. We all agree that there are a vast number of issues that would arise for Kentucky and the nation if this Big, Vicious, Ugly Bill" becomes law. My reading of the article which I supplied the link to above shows me that the majority of the 35 hospitals in Kentucky which can be expected to be starved out if Medicaid is cut are in Eastern Kentucky. Although I generally think of I-65 as being the border line between Eastern Kentucky and Western Kentucky, that is not absolutely accurate. We can also take the position that I-75 is the border between the two. But for the sake of somewhat original thinking on that issue, let's say that the border is an extension of the line created by the border between Ohio and Indiana. If we go to that point on the Kentucky border with Indiana and Ohio and draw a straight line from there due south to the Tennessee border, it is as good a candidate for the border between Eastern Kentucky and Western Kentucky as any other. The image below is of that map showing the locations of the endangered hospitals in Kentucky from the linked story by the Kentucky Center For Economic Policy. If you use that imaginary line from the KY/IN/OH intersection, you will find that only 12 of the endangered hospitals are west of that line. East of the line are the 23 remaining hospitals which are most likely to close due to the loss of Medicaid funding created by the "Big, Vicious, Ugly Bill". God Help Us In Eastern Kentucky If That Happens!

The counties in this list will all be without a hospital in the event Medicaid funding is cut as designed in the "Big Ugly, Vicious Bill" They are Letcher, Knott, Floyd, Martin, Lawrence, Elliott, Carter, Rowan, Greenup, Lewis, Breathitt, Jackson, Lee, Owsley, Rowan, Rockcastle, Montgomery, Powell, Clark, Clay Fleming, These counties are contiguous and constitute a vast block of real estate in Eastern Kentucky which would have no local hospital. Patients in these counties would have no readily available emergency rooms, ICU's, maternity wards, or other services which require a hospital setting. To illustrate just how bizarre this possibility is let's look at some geographic possibilities which would be created. It would be possible to travel by car from Jenkins on the Virginia border to Vanceburg on the Ohio border without ever driving through a county with a hospital. It would also be possible to drive by car from Mount Vernon in Rockcastle County to Greenup in Greenup County without passing through a county with a local hospital. In addition to the loss of these hospitals, the job losses would be catastrophic in a region which is already economically distressed. Nearly all the prescribing professionals (M.D.'s, APRN's, PA's) would be highly likely to leave the region, perhaps even the state. Additionally, thousands of licensed providers such as imaging professionals, Registered Nurses, Licensed Practical Nurses, Certified Nursing Assistants, and a few other professions would be forced to leave the region in order to find work. There would also be hundreds to several thousand unemployed food service workers, housekeeping workers, maintenance workers, clerks, bookkeepers, and security professionals. Yes, there are a couple of hospitals which might survive such as those in Pike and Perry Counties but those two counties are on the Virginia and West Virginia borders and the drive for many patients would be just too far, too expensive, too time consuming, and thousands of low income patients would be likely to not receive regular ongoing health care. One hospital not on the list in Johnson County would suddenly be the primary source of care for Lawrence, Martin, Floyd, Magoffin, and Elliott counties due to the closure of the one hospital in Lawrence County and all three in Floyd County. In legitimate emergencies and accidents, the concept of The Golden Hour for transport to an emergency room would no longer exist. Distances would be too great in many cases for an ambulance crew to assess, transport, and facilitate admission to a hospital for many critical patients in a timely, life saving manner. EMT's and other emergency responders would suddenly be traveling far from their primary service area and their numbers would, at present levels, be too small to provide both the added transport and provide the current level of services in their primary area of responsibility.

The Big, Vicious, Ugly Bill is a disaster in the making for Kentucky and many other states where multiple hospitals will be lost. The damage of this bill is deliberately designed to minimize the poor of this region and several others, to deny them medical services as are customary in a real Democracy. It is intentional! It is criminal! It must not be allowed to take place. This bill must not be approved.

No Republican Should Ever Be Unopposed

As I have watched the ongoing damage to America and American Democracy which has been perpetrated by the TRAITOR and International Terrorist Trump and the  Right Wing Radical Repugnicans over the last year, I have become more and more convinced of an opinion which I have held for nearly all my life.  That opinion is that if American Democracy, individual constitutional rights, and the common welfare are to be protected for the long run we must guarantee that the Republican Party be prevented from ever exercising the degree of power over our governments, federal, state, county, city, and local at all levels, which they have exercised over the last several years.  At every level of government over the last ten to twenty years, we have seen broad ranging attacks on all levels and divisions of government which have been productive for individual citizens, especially citizens who are not among the upper classes financially.  

In my own county of Morgan County Kentucky, we suffered from the crimes of a Republican County Judge Executive who is currently serving a seven year sentence in the federal prison system for thefts of government funds following the West Liberty Tornado of 2012.  At the state level in Kentucky, we are currently involved in a sexual abuse scandal involving several Republican Legislators including one, Dan Johnson, an alleged minister, who committed suicide rather than face the consequences of his actions.  Another, the Republican Speaker of the State House, Jeff Hoover, was forced to resign from his leadership post after his harassment of a female employee became public.  At least three other Republican state legislators have also been implicated in this scandal.  The Kentucky Republican Governor Matt Bevin has demanded that all these legislators resign although it seems likely that his motivation for that demand is based much more on his desire to be able to appoint their replacements from his own loyal cadre of Right Wing Radical Repugnicans who would acquiesce to his desires.  Kentucky is also suffering from Bevin's attempts to destroy Obama Care coverage in the state even though more than 800,000 Kentuckians now have health care for the first time in their lives due to the program.  Bevin has also cost the University of Louisville tremendously by his unconstitutional efforts to remake their board in his own image.  Thankfully, Kentucky has been blessed with a Democratic Attorney General Andy Beshear who has consistently litigated in defense of the citizens of Kentucky having won many of those cases.  

And of course at the national level, we are embroiled in the worst constitutional crisis in the history of the country due to the Russian manipulation of the American electoral process which has resulted in the installation of a Russian Owned Criminal Syndicate in the White House under the reputed direction of the TRAITOR and International Terrorist Donald Trump.   The election results in the South Florida, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin areas were all statistical anomalies which could only be explained by some form of tampering.  The evidence at this time all points toward Russian hacking under the orders of Vladimir Putin in support of the TRAITOR and International Terrorist Trump.  Additionally, we have seen a plethora of actions on the part of the TRAITOR and International Terrorist Trump which are intended to damage and destabilize our allies all around the world.  His retweeting of Right Wing Radical propaganda in England has greatly increased tensions in Britain and significantly increased the likelihood of other terrorist acts against the duly constituted government there.  He has also seriously damaged the budget of the United Nations by arranging to force a $285million budget cut.  If this cut remains in place, it will greatly damage peace keeping missions, health care programs, food assistance programs, education programs, and hundreds of other UN efforts to improve the world especially in developing countries.  It is my considered professional opinion that this effort is deliberate and part of a plan being directed by Vladimir Putin under the management of the TRAITOR and International Terrorist Trump.  The stated intent to move the US Embassy in Israel to Jerusalem has already destabilized the entire Middle East and is also a part of that plan.  All our Arabic allies and Israel also have been destabilized by riots and the likelihood of another Middle Eastern war have been greatly increased due purely to this announcement.  God only knows what else is likely to arise from the minds of these people if they are allowed to remain in charge of American policy.  

Domestically, the attacks from the Russian Owned Criminal Syndicate under the management of the TRAITOR and International Terrorist Trump are just as malicious and deliberate as the international acts of terrorism discussed above.  More than three months after the Puerto Rican disaster, those American citizens are suffering without help from the White House purely because they are Hispanic and voted against TRAITOR and International Terrorist Trump. In Texas, for no logical reason, hurricane victims are suffering without adequate assistance even though Texans voted in favor of TRAITOR and International Terrorist Trump. 

In Kansas, elected Right Wing Radical Repugnicans took bizarre legislative actions which destroyed the state economy.  Sadly, those very actions are one of the models which federally elected Republicans want to inflict on the entire country.  Sadly, they have accomplished much of that aim with their much ballyhooed and highly dangerous "tax cut bill" of 2017.  That legislation will reward the rich and corporations at the expense of the working class, children, students, elderly, ill, infirm, and immigrants.  Republican legislators have also expressed the desire to attack Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, education, environmental protections, and the National Parks System in the coming year.  The Republican Party, in all its many disguises and manifestations, must not be allowed to get away with these efforts to destroy the rights of the many in order to reward the uncaring few.  

In order to prevent further such disasters,  no Republican running for public office should ever be allowed to run without Democratic opposition.  Conscientious, dedicated, committed, and qualified members of the Resistance and the  Democratic Party must step up, take action, register and run for every elected office at stake in the entire country.  No Republican candidate should ever be allowed to run unopposed, unconfronted, or undefeated.  The entire body of constitutional rights, individual freedoms, and American Democracy itself are at stake over the next few years.  The Democratic Party must recruit, train, and financially support these candidates.  The Democratic Party must design a national program of computer security to guarantee the protection of both party and governmental computer systems from Russian and Republican attacks.  The TRAITOR and International Terrorist Trump has proven that there is no crime which these people and the Russians who support them will not commit in order to destroy America and American Democracy.  It is solely up to the American people to stop these white collar terrorists and their criminal efforts.  

     

Health Care Rally Coal Run Village KY July 29, 2017

The War Goes On--We Only Won The Last Battle

On Saturday, July 29, 2017, my wife Candice, my cousin Jack Terry, and I attended a Rally For Health Care at Coal Run City Park in Coal Run Village in Pike County Kentucky.  I have to apologize for not having written about this rally at least two weeks ago so my readers would have been better informed and had a chance to attend the rally.  The bottom line is that the recent win in the US Senate to avoid the destruction of American Health Care was only one battle in what will continue to be a long war unless TRAITOR Trump is indicted, convicted, impeached, and imprisoned for all his crimes, past, present, and future.  This rally was not a celebration of a victory.  It was much more a call to arms for the ongoing war to protect health care for the majority of Americans.  

The rally was sponsored by Kentuckians for the Commonwealth and several other organizations.  If I unintentionally fail to list any of them I apologize in advance. Other organizations which sponsored the rally included the Breathitt County Democratic Women's Club, the United Steel Workers Of America, and several others. Speakers included Dr. Van Breeding a recent winner of Country Doctor of The Year.  Dr. Breeding practises in Whitesburg, KY, and spoke quite positively about the changes which Obama Care has brought to health care in Kentucky and Letcher County.  The rally was also held on the anniversary of the beginning of Medicare and Medicaid.  

The thing that all voters in America, Appalachia, and Kentucky should remember is that the battle against Obama Care will not stop because we won in the Senate more than one time.  The same Right Wing Radical Repugnicans, drug companies, insurance companies, doctors, lawyers, and others who are inciting the TRAITOR Trump group to destroy American Health Care will keep inciting, spending billions in lobbying money, and working to leave Americans in same lurch for health care we had been before President Obama instituted his health care plan.  800,000 Kentuckians, and about 15 to 30 million Americans will lose health care if this plan is allowed to be destroyed.  More than 10,000 of the highest paying and most stable jobs in Kentucky's 5th congressional district will disappear if this plan is destroyed.  Equal numbers of citizens will lose health care and equal numbers of jobs will disappear in other congressional districts all over Central and Southern Appalachia.  West Virginia's 3rd congressional district will have similar losses and their congressman, Evan Jenkins, is doing nothing to protect his district.  The 9th District in Virginia will also have losses nearly as high as those in West Virginia and Kentucky.  The 1st Congressional District in Tennessee will also lose high numbers of jobs and large numbers of the poorest citizens in that state will lose health care if we sit on our butts and allow TRAITOR Trump and his Russian Owned Criminal Conspiracy to destroy the best legislation to pass congress since the Social Security Act.  And, you can bet your butt that if they are allowed to destroy Obama Care they will come after Social Security, Medicare, the GI Bill, and other human services acts as soon as they can.  

Every citizen in America should be up in arms trying to protect Obama Care and fighting to end the attempts to destroy this program.  The United States is the only so-called civilized country in the world without universal health care.  Several Third World countries like Ecuador and Cuba have universal health care because they care for the needs of their citizens instead of their corporations and their rich.  You, as a citizen of both Appalachia and the United States, need to stand up, speak up, and speak out to protect health care in America.  Help bring America up to par with the other true democracies in the world which provide health care to their citizens.