COLUMN: Healthcare crying out for help
Katrina was an overwhelming disaster for this country. It’s estimated around 1,800 people died and it has cost the U.S. over $81 billion dollars, making it the most costly disaster in U.S. history.
The question now is: where did all the money go? For a while there, the Federal Emergency Management Association could not account for millions of dollars in aid. But now they think they’ve figured it out.
In the rush of the aftermath of Katrina, money was being dispersed like wildfire. In certain areas of the disaster, there is recorded that money was given to houses that didn’t even exist. FEMA has determined that 70,000 households received $309.1 million in grants fraudulently, and that may not even be all of them.
What does this show? Two things: Uncle Sam needs to be more careful with his money, and Americans needs to be more prepared to go without.
Budget concerns are always a big deal. Even today, with this latest proposal from the Bush Administration to balance the budget by cutting health care, a move the America Hospital Association president, Rich Umbdenstock, said could be “potentially devastating” for our country, it raises concern for how the current administration is handling funds.
Umbdenstock said the proposal was “selling out” children, the elderly, and the disabled and hospitals should be able to have a little money tucked away for emergencies rather than operating out of the red all the time.
Can anyone hear a thundering ‘amen’ coming from the FEMA office? With millions of dollars missing in disaster aid, I can only imagine FEMA would be thrilled if hospitals all over the country could shoulder at least a small amount of the financial responsibility emergencies carry.
Maybe it would buy enough time for FEMA to get its act together and be able to effectively distribute funds, without jumping the gun and losing millions. Maybe not. But either way, it certainly couldn’t hurt for us to be a little more prepared.
This budget proposal will affect much more than just emergency preparedness. With health care all over the country running in the red or at best barely getting by, technology advances are D.O.A. Hospitals can’t afford the latest, most cutting-edge equipment, and that only hurts the people.
The main problem is the effect it will have on health care provided for the poor, including children and the elderly. Are we willing to sacrifice America’s children and grandparents to get ahead in Iraq?
So Bush wants to spend more on the military. What else is new? Whether he should be able to do it or not, doesn’t matter today. Today, what matters is the fact that he is trying to do it by shooting healthcare in the foot, something there is no way Congress can walk away from.
Maybe it’s time to stand up and just say no.
Mikaylie Kartchner is a junior majoring in print journalism. Comments can be sent to mikayliek@cc.usu.edu.