WMUR has a nifty bit of Hospital Industrial Complex PR peddled as news. Dartmouth Hitchcock (DH) expresses concern about access to health care in rural New Hampshire but never mentions how they are to blame.
“We are seeing some stress fractures, and we need to attend to it now,” said Dr. Joanne Conroy, CEO and president of Dartmouth Health.
Conroy is calling on her colleagues to address the strain on New Hampshire’s health care system, particularly in rural areas.
“So we don’t get to that point where people cannot find an institution that can care for them,” she said.
The cause? According to the DH, “issues from the pandemic still plague hospitals, including high health care costs, supply chain problems and, especially, staff shortages.”
The problem is real, but everything else in this piece is smoke and mirrors.
Thanks to the legislature, Hospitals in New Hampshire have enjoyed a monopoly on health care. It has, if not wholly, nearly wiped out any prospect of genuine private practice. I don’t believe you can be a country doctor or run a clinic in this state without being hog-tied to the nearest hospital.
If you manage to find a location outside their mandatory sphere of influence, unless I remember incorrectly, the cost to set up and operate is prohibitive.
Based on what folks up north have told me, the result is white coat flight. The vaccine mandates for employees did contribute to the staffing issue, especially for nurses, but doctors are also fleeing.
I’ve heard and know some have closed their practices due to insurance, NH regulations, and Dartmouth who runs them out of business (according to them) – practice w/us (DM) or don’t practice a all.
We have lost 3 dentists In 3 years, w/no replacement. We lost our Podiatrist who moved to FL for better business reasons. AND, we just lost our ONLY retina specialist and now have to drive to Concord. We lost our PCP and are now back w/our PCP in Derry which is over 90 miles from here because we cannot get one here!
I reached out to someone else with some expertise on the topic, and they added that “a lot of medical professionals have left for biotech and other industries. Plus, many medical professionals don’t want to live in rural areas.”
Other issues include the decade-long abrasion created by ObamaCare, and COVID vaccine mandates, though we have no reliable data on attrition related to that. Hospitals required this of healthcare workers. Get the Jab™. A few said no thanks and left, some were escorted out, and some will never enter the workspace.
As for costs, that’s been a problem for decades. We can go back several decades to State Senator Jeanne Shaheen, who pushed legislation that drove insurance companies and providers out of New Hampshire. Driving out competition created the insurance and public health cartels that control access and cost in the Granite State. It set the foundation for the problem bemoaned by Dartmouth Hitchcock and their buddy Maggie Hassan.
U.S. Sen. Maggie Hassan, D-New Hampshire, brought the issue to Capitol Hill during a hearing Thursday.
“While it’s essential that we train more registered nurses, we also need these nurses to practice in rural areas in states like New Hampshire, Maine and Vermont,” Hassan said.
Hassan is good buddies with the woman who wrecked health care in New Hampshire. She even did her part as a State Senator and a governor. They both back more federal intrusion and control over local access and care.
If you are unsure what that will look like, ask Dartmouth Hitchcock. It’s a problem they claim they want to fix, but whose fixes they generally oppose at the expense of not just rural care but cost and access everywhere.
If you are serious about people finding someone who can care for them, you’ll have to relinquish your monopoly. We need competition and medical practice free of your influence. Accept insurance from providers in other states (assuming you don’t do that now)—Incentivise rural private practice by offering hospital access without demanding the operation by your leave.
The cure is less of what’s been happening for decades to your benefit, so the odds of it changing or getting better are likely nil.
