Monday, February 01, 2010
The U.S. government managed to make itself look like an emergency room unwilling to take patients until they demonstrate proof of insurance or payment. On Wednesday, medical evacuations from earthquake-ravaged Haiti to the U.S. ceased after the state of Florida began to express concerns over who was going to pay for the hundreds of critically wounded flown to area hospitals.
Sensitive to issues of costs and government spending because he’s locked in a U.S. Senate primary fight, Florida’s Republican Governor Charlie Crist asked Washington to help pay for some of the hospital bills. Once the medical flights ceased out of Haiti, producing embarrassing media stories, the Department of Health and Human Services said it had nothing to do with the decision—and blamed the Department of Defense. The military admitted it did suspend fights carrying patients with spinal cord injuries, burns and other serious wounds, but it was because Florida hospitals had stopped taking in wounded, dumping the blame back in Crist’s lap.
However, on Sunday, the White House announced that flights would be resumed on Monday.
-Noel Brinkerhoff
U.S. Suspends Haitian Airlift in Cost Dispute (by Shaila Dewan, New York Times)
Injured In Desperate Wait for Airlift (by Elinor Brecher, Sydney Morning Herald)
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