Lots of Health Policy Still in Play!

I had the good fortune to be able to travel abroad and at home for most of the fall.  I confess I still have a foot-high pile of newspapers to look through.  It is immediately clear that a number of things have happened related to items I have been commenting upon in these pages.  Among these items:

  • The state legislature, not surprisingly, followed through with its support for a new concept of optometry by approving new regulations.
  •  The Veterans Administration listened to the overwhelming resistance by veterans and others to placing a new Veterans Hospital in downtown Louisville but also, reasonably in my opinion, felt that remaining on the existing Zorn Avenue site was impractical.   This decision has not disarmed the proponents of another downtown hospital who will no doubt continue to bring political pressure to bear against the remaining suburban locations.
  •  Drug companies continue to behave like tobacco companies.
  •  Everyone agrees our healthcare system is in big trouble but almost no one agrees with what to do about it.   My prediction: it will get worse before it gets better.)
  •  For sheer volume of public concern however, nothing comes close to the resistance against a vaguely revealed merger or acquisition of University of Louisville Hospital by the religious organization, Catholic Healthcare Initiatives.  In some as yet undisclosed way, University of Louisville Hospital will combine with Jewish Hospital & St. Mary’s Healthcare.

I will try to comment on these and other issues.  Please join me.

Peter Hasselbacher