I would think that a policy wonk for a conservative think tank would be above taking cheap shots at a tragedy, especially when said tragedy is anecdotal and proves nothing, but I guess not. David Hogberg somehow equates the latest controversy at Drew/Harbor hopsital with that scary world of socialized medicine , so I’m happy to fire back with anecdotes myself.

One hospital in California did unnecessary heart surgeries.

Another hospital was fined more than $700 MILLION for defrauding Medicare (and by relation, US taxpayers.

One private psychiatric hospital locked up patients and held them against their will until their insurance ran out. (No, I’m not making that one up.)

Where did this happen? Canada, the UK, Japan? No, it’s right here in the US. The first was a hospital owned by Tenet, the second HCA, the largest private hospital chain the country, and the third was National Medical Enterprises, now known as… Tenet.

And all three of these are privately owned hospital chains. That what you want from your health care system? One that puts profits over patient safety and proper treatment and diagnosis?

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