I have argued several times that when the government takes over health care, one way it will be able to control costs is to reduce access. Increase wait times, prohibit certain procedures, etc. Now here is yet more evidence.
BALDWINSVILLE, N.Y., Sept. 7— Attorney General Eliot Spitzer said on Thursday that if elected governor he would close hospitals and drastically cut spending in an effort to restore fiscal discipline to New York State.
[snip]
“We’re going to take the tough medicine,” he said at a campaign stop in this Syracuse suburb, adding: “I’m saying to folks this isn’t all milk and honey. These are going to be tough decisions. Nobody likes to hear that a hospital is going to close, or a wing of a hospital, or beds are going to be shifted, but that is what we have to do.”
Oddly enough, this possible closure of hospitals is so that Spitzer can provide health care for children who currently don’t have it.
Much of Mr. Spitzer’s campaign up to now has been spent making costly promises to voters, including cutting property taxes by $6 billion over three years, offering tens of thousands of uninsured children medical care and increasing education spending by billions of dollars.
They may have insurance, but there may not be a nearby hospital for them to go to if they need it. Rather ironic.
Earlier on Thursday, at a stop here, he said that the health care system would be a main target for spending cuts, in part because Medicaid is the largest single part of the budget. He said he would not only seek to close hospitals, building on the work of a state hospital closing commission that is expected to issue a final report in November, but he would also seek to overhaul the system that requires the state to reimburse hospitals for care given to uninsured patients.
This is the great thing about government supplied health care, costs such as not being able to get to a hospital, or having to wait longer for a procedure wont show up on the government’s ledgers so it will look like Spitzer is doing something about health care spending. In reality, he is transferring the budget problems from tax payers to those who need health care.
