Saturday, March 21, 2020

We're Not Just Paying The Cost Of Having Trump, We're Paying For Having Had Reagan In This Crisis

The more they talk about the disastrous shortages of disposable medical masks, gowns, gloves, etc. the more we should declare that this disaster proves that the 1970s-80s era model of cutting costs by creating millions of tons of medical waste instead of hospitals hiring laundry staff with expertise in disinfecting cloth ones is just another of the free-enterprise-economics schemes that don't work when hospitals are most needed. 

That was already apparent in the problem of hospital acquired bacterial infections that kill people -something that has been linked to hospitals in the UK and here and, for all I know, anywhere they contract out such functions to the lowest bidder instead of maintaining an in-house cleaning staff who would care about the place they are working instead of managed by bean counters who probably live in a city hundreds of miles away.  

More than Trumpism has to die of the Covid-19 crisis.  The whole for-profit medical industry has to die to be replaced by one which competently serves the needs of the People and which plans for overwhelming catastrophes, not the maximization of profits. 

I have heard some people point out that Italy which has been so hard hit has universal health coverage and things there spiraled terribly and swamped their hospital system.  I, as I suspect, the Americans I heard say that know little to nothing about the Italian hospital system except for a few horror stories I heard years ago.  I would bet that the quality of hospital care there is not unaffected by the same kinds of market economics that have driven down American healthcare and not provided it for tens of millions.  

I asked my sister this morning to imagine how bad things would be in Maine if Paul LePage were governor instead of Janet Mills who has been doing a good job of telling the truth about what's happening, as compared to Trump who lies with an abandon unmatched by the other liars who have sat in that office.   Janet Mills has the decided advantage of being the sister of Dr. Dora Mills who headed the state office of pubic health for 15 years, someone who was too respected for the Republicans to dump.  The difference is that instead of someone who would have added Maine's name to the list of states who have done nothing under Republicans, we at least have a governor who we can be confident will be responsible.  Someone I know from New Hampshire told me she envied us, now.  Their Republican governor is one of the less irresponsible Republicans but his personal preferences and predilections and beliefs are pathetically on display,  anyway.  It would be the other way around if LePage were still governor. 

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