Lone Candle
Champion of Truth
At least for the Western world, Jesus inspired hospitals, charity for the sake of helping the downtrodden, and love for all mankind.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HeyHtCBcY8k
“What began as an initiative to improve seismic safety and veteran care now serves as a case study in bureaucratic drift. But this type of administrative breakdown is nothing new; the V.A. has long struggled to manage large capital projects and follow through on institutional commitments. From the Phoenix wait-time scandal in 2014—where staff falsified records to hide long delays in veteran care—to the more recent, failed $16 billion rollout of its Electronic Health Records (EHR) system, which was plagued by cost overruns and usability issues, the agency has a well-documented history of dysfunction.
The OIG report calls on the V.A. to reevaluate whether the project should continue. While that’s a difficult call after spending almost half a billion dollars (as of February 2025), it is very clearly a necessary step if the wasteful project is to be shut down. The center’s board of directors might think so too; it did not prioritize the ambulatory care facility in its FY 2026 budget request, and has been indecisive on how to proceed with future budget requests necessary to finance the project.
These actions, along with the implementation of updated contract guidelines in May and the call for a full departmental review in July, might suggest the V.A. finally recognizes that it has serious problems. However, until systemic accountability becomes ingrained in the V.A., boondoggles like the one in Palo Alto will continue at the expense of taxpayers and veterans’ health.”
https://reason.com/2025/09/15/in-16-years-the-v-a-turned-this-450-million-hospital-project-into-a-1-6-billion-boondoggle/
The big city libs want to fund rural hospitals in flyover country. Trump does not.
“President Donald Trump pressed Congress in July to pass his big tax and spending law, which slashed more than $1 trillion from health care programs and could lead to an estimated 11.8 million people losing their health insurance. It also included cuts to what’s known as the provider tax, which nearly all states use to increase Medicaid payments to hospitals, in part to help them fund services in rural communities where providing care may not otherwise be financially possible.
By one estimate, the law’s tax cuts could force more than 300 rural hospitals to close. In Erwin, Tennessee, it may mean Unicoi Hospital never reopens, leaving the county without any hospitals or emergency rooms.”
https://www.politico.com/news/2025/08/22/54-survivors-a-flooded-hospital-and-trumps-political-bloodbath-00518507
Cameras are a legitimate target in the Gaza war because Hamas tries to record their attacks. However, hospitals are protected and a very good justification is needed to hit one and minimal force should be used. Two tank shells is not minimal force.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f-sJxZpAGT0
Gaza has a lot of hospitals relative to their population. This is partly because Gaza has smaller hospitals. Hamas has intentionally built terrorist tunnels under hospitals to make targeting terrorists in them a war crime due to a hospital being in the way. Hamas forces Israel between a rock and a hard place. If Israel doesn’t hit the terrorist/military targets to avoid hitting hospitals, then Hamas can continue to operate there. If Israel does hit the targets, then Hamas propaganda can scream about how evil Israel is for hitting hospitals. Hamas is sacrificing its own people and civilian infrastructure as a tactic against Israel. Many in the West aid Hamas by screaming about hospitals hit while ignoring Hamas’s tactic.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ONXgdGLNSkw
““No senator wants to be the reason their local hospital shutters its doors, and now is their opportunity to stop that from happening,” said a source familiar with hospital industry thinking, granted anonymity to speak freely on strategy.
More than 250 hospital leaders flew into Washington on Tuesday to urge senators to preserve Medicaid as part of an American Hospital Association lobbying campaign. The association spent almost $8.5 million on lobbying in the first quarter of the year, a high water mark dating back almost two decades.
“There are aggressive conversations ongoing … to make sure that all senators recognize the vulnerability that it is going to potentially put all of our hospitals in,” said one stakeholder granted anonymity to speak on strategy”
https://www.politico.com/news/2025/06/17/hospitals-senate-medicaid-megabill-taxes-00410769
“According to a new investigation from The Marshall Project, hospitals are giving women drugs during labor and then reporting them to child welfare services when they later test positive for those same drugs. These cases are one of the more maddening side effects of an out-of-control drug war combined with strict mandatory reporting laws.”
https://reason.com/2024/12/13/hospitals-are-giving-pregnant-women-drugs-then-reporting-them-to-cps-when-they-test-positive/
“Certificate of need (CON) laws exist in various forms in 38 states and Washington, D.C. The stated goal of such laws is to keep costs down by preventing overinvestment in any single market. If regulators decide an area already has enough of any type of service, they can block new construction.
As a result, nobody in North Carolina can open or expand certain medical facilities without these regulators’ permission. Even purchasing an MRI scanner without their approval can be illegal. These restrictions prohibit Singleton from using his own clinic in New Bern for most of the surgeries he performs. He must drive two miles up the road to a competitor’s office, as it is owned by a major health care player. This unnecessary red tape increases costs and decreases scheduling options, and patients suffer.
Singleton has battled this scheme since he set up his clinic in 2024. Frustrated by a wall of bureaucracy and lack of progress, he sued in 2020 with representation from our public interest law firm, the Institute for Justice.
Getting to trial has not been easy. Wake County Superior Court tossed out his case in 2021 without discovery or witness testimony, and the North Carolina Court of Appeals upheld that decision in 2022. The state Supreme Court ruling simply allows Singleton to go back and try again.
Singleton is not alone in this struggle. The Iowa ophthalmologist Lee Birchansky fought for more than 20 years before state regulators relented and gave him permission to perform surgeries at his own clinic. In 2016, Virginia fended off a CON lawsuit from pulmonologist Mark Baumel and radiologist Mark Monteferrante. Kentucky spiked a home health care service that entrepreneur Dipendra Tiwari tried to launch in 2019. Connecticut blocked a cancer treatment center in 2022, clearing the way for political insiders to proceed unimpeded with their own cancer treatment center 45 miles east. None of these cases involved health or safety concerns.
CON laws work great for existing providers, who do not have to worry about rivals setting up shop and attracting patients with superior service. This also means existing providers can also take their doctors and nurses for granted, as CON laws keep rivals far away, limiting their ability to poach talent.
California, Texas, and 10 other states operate without CON laws. None of these states has experienced any measurable harm. In fact, multiple studies show benefits. For example, Matthew Mitchell, a researcher at George Mason University’s Mercatus Center, says states that got rid of their CON laws have more hospitals and surgery centers per capita, along with more hospital beds, dialysis clinics, and hospice care facilities.”
https://reason.com/2024/10/29/doctor-fighting-to-break-certificate-of-need-barrier-in-north-carolina/
“Standing on the edge of the tunnel shaft, it was apparent that the structure itself was substantial. At the top, the remains of a ladder hung over the lip of the opening. In the center of the round shaft, a center pole looked like a hub for a spiral staircase. The shaft itself extended down farther than we could see, especially in the meager light of our headlamps.
Video released by the IDF from inside the shaft showed what we could not see from the top of the opening. The video shows a spiral staircase leading down into a concrete tunnel. The IDF said the tunnel shaft extends downwards approximately 10 meters and the tunnel runs for 55 meters. At its end stands a metal door with a small window.
“We need to demolish the underground facility that we found,” said IDF spokesperson Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari. “I think the leadership of Hamas is in great pressure because we found this facility, and we are now going to demolish it. It’s going to take us time. We’re going to do it safely, but we’re going to do it.”
It is arguably the most compelling evidence thus far that the IDF has offered that there may be a network of tunnels below the hospital. It does not establish without a doubt that there is a command center under Gaza’s largest hospital, but it is clear that there is a tunnel down below. Seeing what connects to that tunnel is absolutely critical.
For Israel, the stakes could not be higher. Israel has publicly asserted for weeks, if not years, that Hamas has built terror infrastructure below the hospital. The ability to continue to prosecute the war in the face of mounting international criticism depends to a large extent on Israel being able to prove this point.
Hamas has repeatedly denied that there is a network of tunnels below Shifa hospital. Health officials who have spoken with CNN have said the same, insisting it is only a medical facility.”
https://www.yahoo.com/news/cnn-visited-exposed-tunnel-shaft-043130146.html
The dire medical crisis in Gaza, explained
https://www.vox.com/world-politics/2023/11/6/23949597/gaza-al-shifa-hospitals-supplies-airstrikes