One of the largest nursing home chains in the U.S., HCR ManorCare Inc. has filed for bankruptcy protection on March 4, 2018 in the Bankruptcy Court in Wilmington, Delaware. Quality Care Properties Inc., HCR’s landlord, will take control of the company.
The private-equity firm Carlyle Group owns HCR ManorCare Inc. The departing CEO, Paul Ormond received $115 million in deferred compensation and severance even though HCR is approximately $230 million in debt. Continue reading
Socialist health care enthusiasts
Photo: Wikipedia
It appears that Obamcare is here to stay. Those doctors who grew up with the conditioning notion of utopian “social justice” love it. Those doctors who hate the government intrusion and regulation into their medical practice hate it. The American public is split as well along those lines. Continue reading
Photo: Ileana Johnson 2015
As my body struggles each spring to cope with the Daylight Savings Time (DST), I wonder if it is beneficial to humans and what effect does it have if any on loss of productivity due to sleep deprivation, on health, and potential accidents. Who decided first that it was a good idea to turn clocks forward one hour in spring and wind them back in the fall? Did it save significant amounts of energy and thus money? Continue reading
The Fraser Institute, an independent, non-partisan Canadian public policy think-tank released a study today which found that “based on experiences of other countries, for-profit hospitals and insurers are compatible with universal health care.”
The study analyzed the universal health-care systems of six countries – Australia, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden, and Switzerland. Continue reading
When the government promises too much free medical care to too many people without making a significant investment in the medical infrastructure, its staff, and its professional delivery, innocent victims of a shortchanged, diluted, and inefficient service are likely to emerge. And the victims will suffer in silence physically or financially, paying for much reduced or unaffordable healthcare. Continue reading
While hiking through the woods, I am having a Rachel Carson “silent spring” moment. It’s early fall, nature is still beautiful, albeit a bit dry. There are no birds chirping, no squirrels, no snakes, just an annoying horse fly and a few mosquitoes. The fern gully is bone dry; all ferns have turned rusty brown from lack of rain. I finally spot a few small fishes darting about in the yellowish creek water. Continue reading
“The best doctor is the one you run to and can’t find.” – Denis Diderot
1987 Yugo GV, Los Angeles, California
Photo: Wikipedia
Your genetic code blue print has finally caught up with you. You were not after all the Mercedes you thought you were, you are just a cheap Yugo. For those of you born after the demise of this wonderful piece of communist engineering, a Yugo was a Yugoslavian made car, just shy of a lawn mower and an East German Trabant, a real Rocket made of plastic and fiberglass, quite safe in an accident, I am sure. Aside from the top speed of 40 MPH, this Yugo started losing its parts, bumpers, and doors as soon as you drove it off the car lot where you had dropped about $2,000 on a bare bones model, emphasis on rickety bones. Continue reading
“2015 was a very busy year for emerging infectious diseases.” – Steven Hatfill, MD
Dr. Steven Hatfill Photo: Wikipedia
Dedicating his lecture to Médecins Sans Frontières, for their heroic actions in West Africa, Dr. Steven Hatfill spoke to a captivated audience at the 33rd Annual Conference of Doctors for Disaster Preparedness in California about the 43 newly emerging infectious diseases that jumped to a larger geographic area from their wild animal hosts to human populations in the past 30 years. Continue reading
Coming in contact with the “new and improved” American Castro Care for the masses that squeaks like a rusty wheel wrapped in cellophane and tied with a red bow, I realize that quality healthcare for American citizens and their undocumented brethren, who crossed the border illegally or were brought here by our government to fulfill the quota of Democrat voters and to alter the “racially unjust” and “bigoted” profile of sleepy little towns, might soon be a thing of the past. Continue reading