Stephan: America's illness profit system is wildly profitable for the corporations and insurance companies that control it. For Americans, particularly Americans in Trump country, i.e., the central rural states, it is a growing disaster.
The Trump immigration policies have resulted in a precipitous decline in immigrant doctors and nurses who make up a significant percentage of the staffs of rural hospitals. Rural hospitals are closing left and right.
I got an email recent from a pregnant reader in Montana who told me she had to drive 100 miles to get to her OB/GYN, and was afraid she was going to deliver her baby in her husband's truck on the side of the road, because she also has to drive 100 miles from their ranch to get to the hospital.
Now, in this report, we have data on nursing homes closing. Why is this particularly important? Because the average age of American ranchers and farmers is 58.3 years, eight years older than it was 30 years ago. If you are an aging farmer or rancher the chances that you will be able to stay in your community if you move to a nursing home is disappearing. You might think that this would make the central Red value states strong supporters of universal healthcare, but you would be wrong. Trump's approval rating today is 41.9% and 81% of Republicans support him.
For six days this winter, Loretta Leonard could not make the 20-mile drive from Mobridge to Selby, S.D., to see her husband, Dick, who is 91 and suffers from severe dementia.
Credit: Kristina Barker/The New York Times
MOBRIDGE, S.D. — Harold Labrensz spent much of his 89-year life farming and ranching the rolling Dakota plains along the Missouri River. His family figured he would die there, too.
But late last year, the nursing home in Mobridge, S.D., that cared for Mr. Labrensz announced that it was shutting down after a rocky history of corporate buyouts, unpaid bills and financial ruin. It had become one of the many nursing homes across the country that have gone out of business in recent years as beds go empty, money troubles mount and more Americans seek to age in their own homes.
For Mr. Labrensz, though, the closure amounted to an eviction order from his hometown. His wife, Ramona, said she could not find any nursing home nearby to take him, and she […]
