Placing the Blame for Slow Medical Care for the Poor

Re “State Says UC Hospital Delayed Care for Poor” (June 29): The cases cited were elective, non-emergency cases. Since the Orange County Board of Supervisors does not find health care a funding priority and Medi-Cal stops paying its obligations early each year, I wonder who is really responsible for the cost of care for these individuals?

Certainly, The Times is not trying to make the inadequate governmental management of great social issues (i.e., illegal aliens, the indigent crisis, the plight of the homeless and poverty) a medical and hospital issue. What other segment of society would care for non-paying, unnecessary needs? If a procedure is elective, the government agencies label it “unnecessary” and “unable to be funded.”

The state must live up to its promises and pay for the services it tells people they are entitled to have. Health care is in a bind because everyone wants the best medical care immediately, but no one wants to pay for it. Hospitals cannot pay nurses, custodians, housekeepers, technicians, etc., on future political promises.

One Times article stated that in the United States the poor have to wait three to six months for elective care and another article stated that the Canadian system is better and more equal. The reality is this: In Canada everyone must wait at least three to six months, and often much longer, for elective care, so I guess that is equal.

Is The Times saying we must now lower the American health-care system to the Canadian system so everyone can wait for their elective health care together?

DR. ROBERT T. MINER

President-elect

Orange County Medical Assn.