Dumping Poor Patients on Public Hospitals

Your editorial (Aug. 8) concerning “dumping of the poor” by area hospitals reflects the concern of many California doctors. A major problem exists in the funding of county hospitals to care for the poor.

Traditionally, county hospitals, have accepted poor, often traumatized patients from surrounding hospitals. The state (i.e. taxpayers) previously provided funding for the county hospitals to care for these poor people, and simultaneously assist in the training of young doctors.

That system is now collapsing. The Legislature has cut funding to the point where bankruptcy is a major concern of some hospital administrators. Accepting non-paying or underpaying patients not only produces no revenue, but also causes a depletion or loss of hospital resources. No system can exist, whether here in America or in Soviet Russia, without adequate financial input. The point of insolvency is high for many hospitals, hence the dumping syndrome.

A humanistic society should provide some minimal health care for its poor. Modern, quality health-care by virtue of its technology is expensive, and inelastic in costs. Society will not pay for top medical care for all, as voter displeasure with tax increases has shown.

Ramming non-paying patients into a barely solvent health-care system, by means of legislative fiat, as proposed in your editorial assures a reduction in services for all, and potential closure of hospitals. Money is needed. Sacramento has to cough up the bucks if Californians want to provide care for their poor.

CHRISTOPHER LYON MD

Newport Beach