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Les Leyne: What John Rustad is pitching: Tax cuts, addiction treatment, nuclear power, fire Bonnie Henry (www.timescolonist.com)

submitted 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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His common sense vision for public safety involves a big increase in addiction treatment programs, most of them private and some of them involuntary, meaning during incarceration. He wants indefinite apprehension of permanently brain-damaged habitual offenders now wandering the streets, on mental health grounds. That could involve invoking the notwithstanding clause in the charter of rights to bypass constitutional concerns if need be, he said.

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[–] [email protected] 8 points 4 months ago (2 children)

The whole thing is worth a read, but this stuck out:

Hospitals now cut services to meet their budget because they look at patients as a cost, he said. “We actually need to reverse that, we need to look at patients as revenue generators.”

[–] [email protected] 9 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

Yeah, that's how the US got to where they are. Profit incentives have no place in healthcare, as it incentivizes the exact opposite of what you want.

If a patient is a revenue generator you'll want to make sure to keep them sick for as long as possible to make more money (or, alternatively, drain them as quickly as possible with exorbitant cost of care then boot them out the door when they can't pay anymore). If a patient is a cost you'll want to make sure they are healed as quickly as possible to avoid a further drain through expenses. And you've also got an incentive to provide high-quality care, because that patient returning means they will increase cost again. So you better do it right the first time around.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 4 months ago

look at patients as revenue generators

Yep. Treat sick people like piggy banks to shake out until all their coins drop out, ruin their life then kick them on the street or let them die. That's the best™ way to do healthcare.