POLITICAL HEALTH CARE POTPOURRI

Stupidest picture of the year! The 50 or so "representative physicians" who approve of Obama's health care reforms dressed in spanking clean white lab coats in the Rose Garden to hear the President give his pitch. Although I have never seen a doctor outside his office or the hospital walking around in a lab coat, without this uniform you could not tell that they were really practicing physicians and not actors. Of course years ago the good old family doctor did not need a uniform for his patients to know that he was THE DOCTOR. After WWII physicians began to walk around the hospital with stethoscopes draped around their neck. That badge of superiority worked until the EMTs adopted that practice.

Except for the house officers (interns and residents) who wore white uniforms the Lab coat was a rarity worn to either keep ones clothes clean or to overcome a sense of inferiority. Today although there could be an argument about reducing the transmission of infection it has become more common not for medical reasons but to meet the public image from TV and the movies.

The organization these so called physicians represented is not main stream but an off shoot of the political "Physicians for Obama " during his campaign years.

Tuesday Assemblyman and candidate Green posted the following.
DOING THE BEST FOR PLAINFIELD
HEALTH CARE

Since 2006, Jon Corzine added 1,543 children to FamilyCare inPlainfield.
Today, 7,922 children are enrolled.

Since 2006, Jon Corzine added 847 adults to FamilyCare in Plainfield.
Today, 2,251 adults are enrolled.

If the Assemblyman would explain how the Governor managed to add children and Adults to Family Care it would mean something, otherwise it is just words. If it is the increase in the number using the Neighborhood Health Center, then the increase could come from the closing of the hospital. That did not benefit Plainfield.

On the subject of Health Care and Hospitals Sunday's Star Ledger compares the three Governor candidate's views.

In regards to hospitals;

Corzine says that the "gut of hospital beds in the state is gone especially among "safety net hospitals" that serve low income and uninsured people"--Expansion of federally qualified healthcare centers should help in areas of hospital closures"

I suppose he feels that the people in communities like Plainfield do not need hospitals that clinics and satellites can take care of their needs if the feds provide the money. Affluent areas can have their hospitals.

Christie favors reopening Pasack Valley Hospital in affluent Bergen County, no mention is made of Painfield's Muhlenberg. , He states "the State should act as a "broker" to see that patients get the right level of care".

Perhaps if he is interested in reopening a hospital in a strong Republican area he could also be convinced to review the Plainfield situation. He does not rule out nor conceive such action.

Daggett specifically mentions the"satellite emergency department" in lieu of the closed Muhlenberg as an ideal solution .

Of the three only Christie offers the faintest hope of a hospital occupying the Muhlenberg site. The others could not care less. My conclusion is that no matter who is elected revival of good care in Plainfield has a low priority.