Socialized Medicine, TEXAS STYLE (For the rich and POWERFUL, that is)

[Tyler Durden]

Re-started for "Maestro" who posted this first.

http://cbs11tv.com/topstories/local_story_313175057.html

(CBS 11 News) DALLAS A CBS 11 investigation uncovers how the rich and famous are getting VIP treatment at Dallas' UT Southwestern Medical Center, a taxpayer-supported state institution.

The hospital has a list of more than 6,000 movers and shakers who get perks, including special access to appointments. The names include high society figures, politicians, and even Arab sheiks.

snip

Wildenthal provides an unlisted telephone number to special assistance patients. That number is 214-645-7111. By calling the number, these VIPs can request care on weekends or after hours when most patients can't get past a doctor's answering service. The letter states, "At all times, one of a special group of twelve highly-trained UT Southwestern physicians will be on-call to assist you."

snip

Special assistance patients receive even more perks, including free valet parking and personal escorts to their appointments from hospital ambassadors. Ambassadors make sure VIPs move to the front of the line for doctor's appointments, according to current and former clinic employees who spoke with CBS 11 on the condition that we concealed their identity.



PLEASE read this damned thing. MAESTRO posted this first, it got a lousy 2 recs and sank like a rock.

THIS IS REALLY NASTY. You can read the actual lists of VIPs on links on the story.

KUDOS to the MAESTRO for posting this: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x2255468

[aquart]

1. Texas could be sold to Mexico for a dollar.

[PDittie]

4. No thanks. We'll stay

and try to change her back to blue. You don't have to help, but all of us would appreciate it if you'd stow the unhelpful comments.

[Tyler Durden]

5. This really isn't a "Bash Texas" thread.

I regret the "TEXAS STYLE" but I heard it so many times when I was exiled, I mean, when I spent 10 years in Texas, it just sort of fell out.

Anyone who doesn't think this goes on all the time in every major rich city is KIDDING themselves.

[sweetpotato]

7. Not just Texas

>>>UT Southwestern's Executive Vice President for Health System Affairs defends the special assistance program. Dr. John McConnell told CBS 11 "This is a practice commonly used in the healthcare industry. Every major academic medicine in America has such a program. It has nothing to do with medical care."<<<


Rationing healthcare.

Its already here.

[Horse with no Name]

10. Would it surprise you to know that Baylor (downtown Dallas)

has an entire VIP floor as well as VIP suites on each floor?
The rooms are like hotel suites.
They aren't the only ones.

[Tyler Durden]

14. Nope. No surprize THERE.

You should see M.D. Anderson in HOUSTON.

They have ANTIQUES in their VIP suites.

[TZ]

16. Have you heard about this one?

http://www.wtopnews.com/?sid=1286126&nid=226&pid=2
This is epidemic..Walter Reed...NIH...Bethesda Naval Hospital

[Tyler Durden]

17. I was in the NAVY. I SAW this shit in action.

Private rooms for the big shots...squad bay type wards for the enlisted (AND the enlisted dependents.)

[Thothmes]

18. Not always

Spent 10 days in the open bay general surgery ward of a Navy Hospital. Was a LT. at the time. Guy in the next bed on one side was a BT2, the side an SA, accross from was a Chief SM.

[Tyler Durden]

21. Never saw 0-4 or above on the open wards.

Never saw a congressman or their dependents there either. Bethesda: 1979-1983

[girl gone mad]

12. Oh..

so you're one of those who thinks this crap wouldn't happen in your perfect liberal haven, wherever that might be.

Elites control every part of this country. You don't think movie stars in LA get special treatment? NYC's top investment brokers? What a joke. The only difference between those places and Texas, is that our liberals are tough as nails and we fight to expose and eradicate it.

[Tyler Durden]

15. Think you missed the "Not a TEXAS BASHING" thread.

As someone who as met and discussed many topics with Kent Bentsen, I say again, NOT A BASH TEXAS THREAD.

And of course it goes on everywhere. Think I said THAT too.

[Thothmes]

19. Not Always

Spent 10 days in an open bay surgery ward of a Navy Hospital. I was a LT. at the time. On one side was a BT2, the other side was an SA, across from me was an SMC.

[Tyler Durden]

22. See #21

[Tyler Durden]

2. More people need to read the original article.

This needs to be picked up like dogshit off the lawn and rubbed in the faces of Washington.

Does anyone really think this happens only in DALLAS?

[Tyler Durden]

3. You know, this is REALLY IMPORTANT.

These guys are the same assholes that piss all over Single Payer Healthcare for all of us, LARGELY because, as you can see if you read the article...

THEY WILL LOSE ALL THEIR PERKS, HEAD-OF-LINE PRIVILEGES, AND TREATMENTS THAT NONE OF US CAN EVEN HOPE TO HAVE EASY ACCESS TO.

[AuntPatsy]

27. A good journalist would be aiding in exposing this outrage, think one can be found?

[Quantess]

6. Not shocking or surprising.

How else would we expect the health care for the obscenely rich would be like?

[Horse with no Name]

8. Trust me when I say

they aren't the ONLY hospital that does it. It is surprising that this is a surprise to anyone--because it is done with such regularity that I cannot imagine it being a surprise.
I have worked for some large foundation hospitals here in Texas that do the same thing.
I am sure though, that these lists at these OTHER institutions have been destroyed.

[RB TexLa]

9. And only a few said "donor" beside them

I could understand someone is wealthy and gives a few or ten's of millions of dollars getting greeted at the door and some special treatment. And that might be how this started out and then put my housekeeper on the list, put my brother in law on the list and so on and so on.

They need to get that thing under control.

[gratuitous]

11. I will bet in the hour and a half since this was posted

The special "members only" number has been re-routed, and a new one set up, and everybody who had access to the old number has been given the new number already. I guess this is what Hot Tub Tom DeLay was talking about when he said nobody in medical need is ever turned away from a hospital in America. He just forgot to mention that he meant "nobody who has the special number."

[DemoTex]

13. UTSWMC sux. A B/P specialist put me on a 24-hr B/P monitor for 3 days: $800!

It was a crappy little device that I wore for 3 days. It would record my blood pressure every 20 minutes or so. But my medical insurance would not pay a cent on it because it was not FDA approved! But the B/P monitor that I had been put on a year earlier at the Texas Blood Pressure Institute was FDA approved and my insurance company paid.

My insurance company suggested I contact UTSW and bargain them down on their non-FDA approved monitor. I did and they laughed in my face. I had to pay them $800 for the use of a monitor that my regular B/P doctor said was unreliable, at best.

Then, after moving away from Dallas (far away!), I tried to get my medical records from UTSW. That ordeal took three months. Just hope that you never have to deal with the medical records department at UTSWMC.

I always relish the irony that UTSWMC is located on Harry Hines Blvd., in Dallas. More people know that they can find whores - lots of whores - on Harry Hines Blvd. than know it is also the location of Parkland Hospital (where JFK died) and the UTSWMC.

[w8liftinglady]

20. as a nurse in the Dallas area,I can tell you that several

facilities have these VIP floors,including Parkland.Not surprisingly,they are also the hardest ones to staff.After 25 years of college and saving lives,kissing ass just never came naturally to me or my peers.The people who work these floors are usually idealistic new grads who don't last long.

[Tyler Durden]

23. Same with the Navy Hospital

Nothing but the nurses on the VIP floors, no Hospital Corpsmen.

Didn't bother us Corpsmen much. We kissed enough Officer ass; more ass to kiss wasn't a plus.

[redqueen]

24. Thanks for posting this.

Watched the local news for a little bit this morning... guess what wasn't mentioned?

[redqueen]

25. Kick for comments...

:kick:

[Blue_Tires]

26. ttt

[sicksicksick_N_tired]

28. I want repukes to explain WHY taxpayer money shouldn't be applied to benefit taxpayers.

Big business gets out of paying taxes. The richest among us get out of paying taxes. Why the hell should they MOST BENEFIT from our national treasure when they are all ready most benefitting from doing business and pulling the strings and "being rich" here?

[redqueen]

29. Cause god loves them more, obviously.

Dur.


;)

[Gloria]

30. Kick this Sucker!!!!