A new law, in effect as of today, requires all health care facilities to publicly say what procedures they won't offer for non-medical reasons
Oct 01, 2024
Today marks an important step on the road to medical transparency.
A new Colorado law has now gone into effect, requiring all hospitals to tell the public up front what procedures they won’t perform for non-medical reasons. That’s especially important for Catholic hospitals, which now have to be open and honest about the
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Anyone who does not know a Catholic hospital will not perform an elective abortion is too stupid to exist.
This is long overdue. I remember as a young woman making an appointment with a doctor to get birth control only to have the doctor tell me she was catholic and didn’t believe in it so wouldn’t prescribe it. I said I was clear about what the appointment was for from the beginning of making appointment and starting this exam. Why didn’t you or your staff mention this? She mumbled something about freedom of religion and I said it’s fraudulent business practices. We got into quite a shouting match. Yeah, I didn’t pay for that service.
As far as I’m concerned if you are going to use your religion to guide your professional services, you should be required to state that upfront. Bravo, Colorado!
It has become an age where many hospitals are going bankrupt and Catholic Hospitals (being non-profit - but non-prophet) are coming in the forefront. Here, the main hospital is Peacehealth. There is a large facility in Bellingham and is the main hospital in the county seat Friday Harbor. Yes, there are things they won't do (think a lot that comes under the heading of women's issues). More and more states and local bodies are holding their feet to the fire.
I live in Canberra, Australia. We had a hospital here that was run by the Catholic Church. They refused to perform abortions and give reproductive advice to women. The government took over the hospital and all is well.
Does Australia have national health?
@pedigojr Yes, we do. And if you have a health care card are a pensioner you get a lot of prescriptions very cheaply too. We also have free walk in clinics staffed with nurses that can access if you need to go to emergency or not. They can also do MRI's, CT scans, etc, etc. It is free if you have a medicare card, which all Australians and permanent citizens do.
@Jolanta Sounds a lot more civilized than the U.S. I'm sure your taxes are also higher. We (not me) complain about paying taxes but then complain about not having services like so many other developed countries. One would think (wrongly) that people would finally get it. These same clueless people are prepared to vote for trump in hopes he will lower taxes even further which he will but only if you're ultra wealthy.
@pedigojr Our taxes are not that high for what we get, although of course people complain, but they never think of what they get for it. Australia's 2021 tax-to-GDP ratio ranked it 30th¹ out of 38 OECD countries in terms of the tax- to-GDP ratio compared with the 2022 figures. In 2021 Australia had a tax-to-GDP ratio of 29.5%, compared with the OECD average of 34.0% in 2022 and 34.2% in 2021.
@Jolanta Not sure how that compares with the US. Still I wonder instead of taxing the average person is yours a progressive tax system (meaning taxing those with more, at a higher rate). Most developed countries do this except here the high income people use their dollars to lobby politicians to give them a reduced tax. It's one reason we have such lousy service especially when republicans are in power.
@pedigojr Yes, if you earn more you are in a higher tax bracket, however rich people have great accountants that know all the loopholes. The green party is trying to get them closed but they are not that influential yet. It will happen. Yes people with money do lobby. The green party is trying to stop it too they don't take any donations from any big business.
@Jolanta I was the Records Manager for the Seattle branch of KPMG (it's there in Australia) and witnessed, first-hand the tricks used by the wealthy to lower their tax rates. Two of our clients, Bill Gates and Paul Allen did not employ such tactics. I believe if the wealthy payed to the government what they pay to accountants and lobbyists the world would be much better off.