On patient dumping

On the Jan. 10 edition of CBS Evening News, a story showed security guards at the University of Maryland Medical Center in Baltimore dumping a patient at a bus stop at night. It was freezing, and all the crying patient had was the skimpy hospital gown that covered her. The incident was videoed by a startled private citizen. The hospital admitted what it had done. How could it not—it had been caught red-handed!

“Patient dumping” has a long history in our country. In recent times the practice got attention in 2006-07 when the Associated Press discovered that hospitals in Los Angeles were taking patients by ambulance to Skid Row and dumping them out. These patients had inadequate means to pay for medical care.

We Okies remember when the mental hospital in Vinita “downsized” in 1999. The state of Oklahoma turned many patients out onto the streets of Vinita but most notably the streets of Tulsa, to which many were bussed. Such patients wound up mostly in jails and prisons, where they make up more than half of those who are incarcerated in many of our states.

We Americans have a disgraceful health-care system. We keep spending far more than citizens of other nations for health care, we get worse outcomes, and now our life expectancy is shortening. We have ridiculously

complicated and patchwork and unaffordable health care. We have become accustomed to being pushed around by politicians and insurance companies, who determine what health care we can have and what will be withheld from us. Every nation but us has figured out how to deliver health care to its citizens.

I don’t know how the U.S. could be considered a “Christian nation.” What is going on is the polar opposite of the example and teachings of Jesus. He was very clear as to how we should treat our neighbors and “the least of these.” We Americans need some good old Bible study, and it should start with Matthew 25.

SANDY WYLIE Bella Vista