Friday, July 20, 2012

The Walker Budget Keeps On Working! Part CXXX

Marshfield Clinic already cut 50 jobs in the healthcare field and warned that there might be more job loss coming. They weren't kidding:
The Marshfield Clinic has cut 119 positions this year as the sluggish economy has caused fewer patients to seek treatment.

The latest round of job cuts, 69 positions across the 54-site Marshfield Clinic system, was announced this week, said Brian Ewert, president of the medical facility that employs about 8,000 people at locations in central and northern Wisconsin.

The Clinic has used several measures -- layoffs, rescinded job offers, attrition and cutting some full-time staff members to part-time -- to make the cuts.

Positions eliminated range from direct patient care to clerical and business office staff, Ewert said. The cuts will save in excess of $1 million, he said.

"The major reason (for the position cuts) is the decrease in demand for services," Ewert said Thursday.

Fueling the Marshfield Clinic's systemwide decrease in patient load is the sluggish economy and high deductibles that now are standard on most health insurance plans, Ewert said. The Affordable Care Act and private insurers were not a factor.

"People with insurance have a deductible that is about $3,000 to $5,000 and in some cases up to $10,000. This causes people to think about it longer before they come to the physician," Ewert said.
In other words, Scott Walker's strategy of taking away more money from the people to give to his corporate supporters and then forcing people to pay more to subsidize the wealthy CEO's of Big Insurance and Big Medicine isn't working to help stimulate jobs.

Imagine that.

I'd imagine it'll get a lot worse if Walker continues to refuse to work with Obama in making healthcare more affordable for everyone.

11 comments:

  1. The best medical team.

    This is one big medical company in Wisconsin that has grown in size, expanding all over into other cities that already had good services.

    I suppose a nifty logo and high level of corporate identity almost call for that expansion.

    From St. Mary's in Duluth, MN taking over northwestern Wisconsin, to the Aurora system spreading all over the southeast corner....,

    ..., to a certain Milwaukee area system that essentially teamed up with the states largest insurance provider, said healthcare provider also overbuilding, and coming up with a shortage of bed use.

    While the other already existing healthcare in the area takes a loss from the new overbuilt competition.



    Overbuilding, overextending, is something the housing market came to a head on.

    Big medi-systems that don't have a consumer base to support them will ultimately fail, too.

    But guess who will get a state-subsidy to keep them afloat all the time.....

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. And that money won't get passed the profiteers who own and control these systems.....

      Delete
  2. Of course, competition has nothing to do with it. If you had half a brain, you would realize that the Marshfield Clinic and Aspirus in Wausau are big competitors, especially since Aspirus has opened up a trauma center in the past couple of years. They have taken a lot of patients Marshfield used to take. The Wausau hospital also started up their own rescue helicopter and that has taken a lot of business from Mareshfield who used to be the only rescue helicopter in Central and Northern Wisconsin
    But hey, keep on informing us with your brilliance. You just keep on making us smarter everyday.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Check out how the public money gets pumped into this system.

      You get billed more than the direct bill from the billings department.

      That same billings department that is based in some other state.

      The same department that has to work with some other "insurance provider" in yet another state.

      Dan is a douche, and doesn't consider things like this.

      How many people, across how many states are taking YOUR money, DAN, as you pay for services in YOUR community?

      Delete
    2. Dan, if you're going to make comments about intelligence, it might behoove you to make sure you know how to spell.

      And funny how the competition has been there a while, but the layoffs just happen to have happened when Walker kicks people off of Badger Care and tens of thousands of people lose their jobs, thanks to Walker.

      Delete
    3. Apparently Dan doesn't exude much in the way of brilliance, as is noted in his inane comments. Here's a little fact check for you Dan. Ministry Health Care is the owner of the rescue helicopter, not Marshfield Clinic. Having been employed by both Ministry Health Care and Marshfield Clinic, I would say my brilliance pretty much trumps your ignorance.

      Delete
    4. That's a lot like a Gold Cross ambulance operation, then!

      They get paid by picking people up. If you don't really need that ride----DON'T TAKE IT.

      Delete
  3. Lets go back to the economic nirvana under Jim Doyle where job looses had a K after the digits to round them off.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. That was nation-wide.

      George helped get the ball rolling.



      I remember how crappy things got when Thompson got his stuff going for me personally. I thought the best was my property taxes almost doubling along the way.

      If Walker is more "right" than Tommy, I figure if I simply maintain, I'm doing better than average!

      Delete
    2. Well, if that is the comparison you want to make, Scooter is losing jobs twice as fast as Doyle. And keep in mind that Doyle was facing a global recession/depression while Walker is doing during a national recovery.

      Delete
  4. I blame Walker for the majority of this. Why? Because it all adds up that's why. Plus, living in the small community that is Marshfield, you hear from people and talk to others who help validate what I'm about to convey.

    Central Wisconsin has seen huge job losses, with factories closing in numerous cities throughout. Had we gotten just a small portion of those 250,000 jobs that Walker promised, we probably would be doing much better than we are. Add to that fact that many public workers in this area were forced to hand over more of their money than most corporations pay in taxes in a year, and you can see how the decision to put food on the table or go and have some serious ailments treated becomes more common.

    Realize this too. There are large numbers of uninsured people in this area, and they are still being treated too, adding to the costs everyone else pays (kind of like socialized medicine for any teahadists out there reading this). Add to this fact that many who did have insurance in the area have lost that insurance, experienced increased premiums, and\or are seeing larger deductibles thanks to Scotty Boy, and it's affecting a lot more than the "dirty rotten public worker union thug" like Walker and his idiotic base wanted.

    It's apparent now, that Walkers' supporters wanted to see this entire state in ruins. Why else would they vote for the scumbag twice?

    ReplyDelete