Another Mayor's budget, another time of calls to cut common people's health care

A blogging Nashville pastor reflects on the likely fallout from political attempts to remove Metro's modest health care safety net by cutting funding of Nashville General Hospital at Meharry and the Bordeaux Long-Term Care facility:

It was clear that the closing of the hospital would lead to people going untreated for their diseases — including treatable heart disease, cancer and other life-threatening illnesses. Likewise, skilled-care facilities like Bordeaux are even more unlikely to take on indigent patients, meaning that the families of the weakest and frailest among us would have few options for the care of their family members. It’s not outside the realm of possibility that there are people who would die sooner than they might otherwise if we did not provide the care that the Metro Hospital Authority provides.

Nashville General sits right square in North Nashville, and Bordeaux lies to the west of us across the Cumberland. So, these facilities provide important care for our local neighborhoods, especially for "the least of these". Politicians, especially conservative ones, are always targeting the weak and the poor by slashing and grabbing money from the programs that serve them. They do not seem to think twice about turning the frail out into the streets or letting them suffer and die from treatable diseases.

We should consider any threat to defund these institutions as a threat to our general welfare and common good in North Nashville.