Quotes to Note: Underappreciated and Overlooked Facts about Hospitals

We fail to appreciate merits of which we have no conception.

James Fenimore Cooper (1789-1851), The American Democracy

About half of the eight million people who obtained coverage in health –law marketplaces between October and mid-April arrived in the final six weeks of the extended enrollment period.

"Under the law, up to 26 million people are expected to gain coverage over the next few years through expanded state-run Medicaid programs and through the new, online marketplaces that allow consumers to get subsidies to buy coverage. Many who were previously uninsured already received hospital care, but sometimes racked up bills that were never paid."
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Christopher Weaver, “Health-Law Patients Lift Hospital Profits,” WSJ, Jul7 26-27, 2014

“Oregon’s largest employer is not Nike, which ranks only sixth. The three largest employers, and 13 of the top 25, are health-care providers. But, then, in the archetypal Rust Belt manufacturing city of Cleveland, the largest employer is the Cleveland Clinic and the second-largest is another health-care provider. Houston is America’s energy capital, but four of its five largest employers are in the health-care field. Pittsburgh’s largest employer is the University of Pittsburgh, partly because of its medical center.
Given the enormous and growing role of medicine in this aging nation’s economy, it is unfortunate that only three senators are physicians: Wyoming Republican John Barrasso, an orthopedic surgeon, Oklahoma Republican Tom Coburn, an obstetrician, and Kentucky Republican Rand Paul, an ophthalmologist. Coburn is retiring, but another doctor may be coming, straight from the operating room to her first elected office.”

George Will, “Oregon’s Monica Wehby May Make House Call on Senate, Washington Post, July 25, 2014

Comment: In world of health care politics, hospitals, as the largest employers in many cities, are often underappreciated and overlooked as power players in shaping ObamaCare policies.