ObamaCare is “one big” reason for the sale of three Catholic hospitals in Northeastern Pennsylvania. When Mercy Health Partners CEO Kevin Cook suddenly announced the sale of the three hospitals on Scranton’s WNEP TV, he cited ObamaCare as a mitigating factor in the sale:
“Health care reform is absolutely playing a role. Was it the precipitating factor in this decision? No, but was it a factor in our planning over the next five years? Absolutely.”— Kevin Cook, CEO Mercy Health Partners
However, 48 hours after WNEP broadcast the story, Sr. Carol Keehan, president and chief executive officer of the Catholic Health Association (CHA), intervened and Cook walked back his story, pointing his accusatory finger away from ObamaCare.
Keehan is a powerful DC social-justice lobbyist with high-powered elite friends, and is one nun who welds considerable clout with the Catholic Bishops and Catholic hospitals around America. The skinny has it that she helped convince Bart Stupak (D-MI) to break his anti-abortion pledge and agree to support ObamaCare.
The sale of the Catholic hospitals has added to ObamaCare’s “trail of destruction.” The Scranton-area hospitals are a clear harbinger for future hospital closings in areas with high elderly populations. Because of ObamaCare cuts in Medicare reimbursement, hospitals in areas with significant elderly populations won’t be able to make enough money to pay accumulating debts due to their capital investments. The decreased income due to low Medicare reimbursements will force them either to sell or to close.
Located in Democrat congressmen Paul Kanjorski’s 11th District and Chris Carney’s adjacent 10th District, the three Catholic hospitals did not perform abortions, but under the new owners abortion procedures will be offered. Both incumbents along with Joe Sestak, the Democrats’ nominee for Arlen Specter’s U.S. Senate seat, voted to pass ObamaCare without having read the bill.
(H-T Ladd)
I.M. Kane
For more on this breaking story, see The President’s Nun: Obamacare Scranton Scandal Explodes by Jeffrey Lord.
