MLK Hospital Shuts Down

The shutting down of the MLK ER (and soon, the hospital) should be a cautionary tale for those who want the government more involved in our health care system. The hospital was created in the aftermath of the 1965 Watts riots so there would be a first class health care facility for the people who live in south LA. Read the LA Times' the Pulitzer Prize winning series here (requires a free login that will not add to your spam).

The hospital is overseen by the LA county board of supervisors (B)S). The BOS is made up of 5 people who represent more than 2 million people each (but that's for a different conversation). Because it was conceived as a 'black' hospital (forget that now south LA is populated by far more Hispanics) politicians and journalists were loathe to criticize how it's been run. It receives more money per patient than any public hospital in CA, but delivers the poorest care.

The hospital was opened with politics and race in mind (although the area desperately needed it) and it was run with little oversight from the BOS because they didn't want to be seen as questioning the black leadership of the hospital. Even to this day, some black politicians scream that the hospital is being picked on due to racism. Uh, what about the racism of providing this minority community substandard care? Now an area that needs more hospital beds and more emergency services will have less. Why? Because politics trumped health care.

Now when I hear/see more people arguing for more government run health care, I can't think of MLK's troubles and the cluster-fuck at the veteran's administration. Just two examples of how big government is incapable of delivering good health care on a large scale.