Post by Dr Demented on Nov 27, 2007 17:10:06 GMT -5
I submitted this to the local newspaper today. It's horseshit how our community is being brought down by consolidation efforts and bureaucracy.
I have been trying to help a young couple wade through the system and the local "community health clinic" is nothing more than a cruel joke on the poor.
Between outrageous waiting lists and inadequate staff, it seems that the only way to get a doctor to look at you is to go to the emergency room. I can remember years ago when a nurse practitioner still visited the day shelter and when Medicaid/Medwise was accepted by all. Now, everything has been centralized into a grinding mill where the poor are shuffled into endless obscurity. If more doctors would accept the state insurance, the local ER would not be filled with non-emergency patients.
Many of these people want to escape their poverty, but illness or bureaucracy is keeping them down. This same young couple has been trying to find suitable housing, but have been confronted by questionable tactics, such as "non-refundable application fees" and high deposits. It's discrimination no matter what color you are. Add to this the never-ending waiting lists on the few subsidized housing complexes in the area and you have your explanation as to why homelessness is a problem. It doesn't help that illegal aliens and Katrina victims have subsidized homes in the area but actual citizens are left on the street. Why are they given preference in housing and healthcare, while citizens are left to rot?
Maybe we should re-evaluate the idea of taking care of legal citizens of our own backyard before we hand out all of our taxes to everyone else.
I have been trying to help a young couple wade through the system and the local "community health clinic" is nothing more than a cruel joke on the poor.
Between outrageous waiting lists and inadequate staff, it seems that the only way to get a doctor to look at you is to go to the emergency room. I can remember years ago when a nurse practitioner still visited the day shelter and when Medicaid/Medwise was accepted by all. Now, everything has been centralized into a grinding mill where the poor are shuffled into endless obscurity. If more doctors would accept the state insurance, the local ER would not be filled with non-emergency patients.
Many of these people want to escape their poverty, but illness or bureaucracy is keeping them down. This same young couple has been trying to find suitable housing, but have been confronted by questionable tactics, such as "non-refundable application fees" and high deposits. It's discrimination no matter what color you are. Add to this the never-ending waiting lists on the few subsidized housing complexes in the area and you have your explanation as to why homelessness is a problem. It doesn't help that illegal aliens and Katrina victims have subsidized homes in the area but actual citizens are left on the street. Why are they given preference in housing and healthcare, while citizens are left to rot?
Maybe we should re-evaluate the idea of taking care of legal citizens of our own backyard before we hand out all of our taxes to everyone else.