Houstonians for Health Care Hit Dan Wolterman, Opponents Hard

Rash conclusions? (0.00 / 0)

Seem like rash conclusions to a limited amount of information. I'd be curious to hear Dan Wolterman's response to your allegations. Was he asked directly?

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by: HouPolitico @ Tue Nov 17, 2009 at 12:52:52 PM CST

Nope (0.00 / 0)

But if he wants to finally return a call, I will post his response.  I spent a day trying to sort things out and do research and his office and KBH's were the two that didn't respond.  

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by: Matt Glazer @ Tue Nov 17, 2009 at 14:36:15 PM CST

[ Parent ]

Demographics includes things other than race (0.00 / 0)

I hate to do this--Wolterman is nobody's angel--but I'm going to defend a select comment of his in this instance.

Oftentimes, when hospital administrators talk about "demographics" or in this instance, "demographic decline" it refers more to measures of income and insurance coverage.  It rarely has much, if anything, to do with race.  Is race a proxy for poverty?  Yes.  Do healthcare providers discriminate against the poor?  You bet.  But these things have always been true, and Wolterman can hardly be blamed for it.  He's a creature of the current industry.  Hopefully the healthcare bill in Congress will change things.

Its a crappy situation for Harris County taxpayers.  They need the hospital, but the money isn't there to make a for- or nonprofit soluble.

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by: patknapp @ Tue Nov 17, 2009 at 13:16:39 PM CST

The "NIMH"ers.... (0.00 / 0)

Reality is the doctors he supposedly threw under the bus didn't want to work for the county hospital district  treating "those people" and you really should get some facts before you start accusing someone of attempting to "dump" a hospital on the county hospital district when in fact he was actually trying to solve two problems.

One problem for the Memorial Health Care System. The other problem for the growing number of people who have no health insurance in SW Houston and no real access to health care  who will still have no insurance and still no real access to health care after the madam of the bordello we call Congress manages to get her bail-out of the health industry crooks passed and signed into law.  

And my impression, and the impression of quite a few others, is that Dan Wolterman is not one of the crooks.  The doctors, who really killed the deal more than anyone else, simply showed their true commitment to healing the sick by taking a "Not in My Hospital" attitude.  

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by: Baby Snooks @ Tue Nov 17, 2009 at 14:03:04 PM CST

[ Parent ]

Interesting and important post (0.00 / 0)

Thanks for this, Matt!

Both local government and health care in Houston are debt-driven and under-reported. Remember Enron -- a bi-partisan darling with a super credit-rating until 24hrs before it died?

A mix of hype and obscurantism attracts extremists like Hotze or Patrick. It gives them and their fundamentalism, conspiracy theories, and market utopianism undeserved credibility. Incidentally, some of the right-wing "tea-bagger" types within the GOP were opposing Locke after GOP stalwart Beverly Kaufman endorsed him but before Hotze got on board.

Now, the entire right wing will get on board behind Locke. Fortunately, the right mostly lives in the white enclave-cities or outside of the Houston city limits. Still, that will leave Parker with only some "moderate Republican" support -- all ten of them.

And, who can trust the evasive, euphemistic, and opaque mainstream politicians, like Parker or Locke? They are both raising money as bi-partisan "insiders" while running on shallow issues, meta-politics like "ethics", identity-politics, buzz-words, and empty symbolism.

I agree w/ Murray that if Locke can mobilize a higher, non-white turnout in the run-off, he wins. I agree with Kuff and Wythe that Parker has "momentum". But, momentum in an 18% turnout election is not much momentum. And, if the insipid politics of the "soft-center" drives turnout down further into a single-digit war of lists, Hotze could get Locke elected.

Dr Hotze is not just an extremist: He, like Bohac and Johnson, is a "technician" with access to more than just a gaggle of preachers.  

It gets worse:

The result of low political participation in municipal politics is irresponsible coalition government by the method of collusive bargaining. That results in compounding debt with the risk of cascade failure and, in turn, more distrust of government. The distrust is now clearly manifest both as fringe politics but, also, as demoralization of what should be a center-left majority and ruling party in Houston.

Watch out! Democrats have the capability of being that center-left majority and ruling party in Houston. But, they have not used it and, now, they may lose it.  

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by: JRBehrman @ Tue Nov 17, 2009 at 14:29:16 PM CST