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November 21, 2009 (LPAC)—Yesterday, two protest rallies were held in former steelbelt towns in Ohio and Western Pennsylvania, demanding that local hospitals not be shut down. These manifestations of rage at Washington—now occurring in many states, are blacked out of the national media, just at the time of attempted ram-through of the Hitler health care "reforms."

In Youngstown, Ohio, 60 people rallied downtown and marched to the steps of Federal bankrupcty court, where the future of the Northside Hospital is to be decided, since its owner, Forum Health Inc., declared bankruptcy last March. A rally speaker, Nancy Moore, staff nurse at the hospital, warned that any closure or downsizing would be "devastating." There are 1,400 jobs directly involved, and 4,000 jobs overall across other Forum facilities, located in Warren and elsewhere in this economically burned-out region. In these towns, and former big cities such as Cleveland, hospital systems are now the largest employers.

In Braddock, Pennsylvania, hundreds turned out yesterday in the rain, to protest the shutdown of Braddock Hospital, the 103-year-old community hospital in the borough, which is a depressed town on the Monongehela River in the former Pittsburgh steel belt. The closure is planned for January 31, 2010, announced in October by owner UPMC (University of Pittsburgh Medical Center), which has morphed from once being a premier educational center into now running a globalist health operation, specializing in market-based "medical partnerships," e.g., telemedicine centers in Britain, Qatar, Ireland, Italy and Cyprus.

UPMC, now the biggest employer in Western Pennsylvania with 50,000 workers, has systematically bought up distressed local hospitals, selectively shutting them down, and otherwise building up facilities in "wealthy markets." Earlier this year, UPMC's South Side hospital was merged into UPMC's Mercy Hospital. McKeesport Hospital is the next one threatened with closure, while at the same time, UPMC has started work on a new facility in a ritzy part of Allegheny County. This model—an anti-Hill Burton, anti-American approach, is in force nationwide, while, on net, the ratios of hospital beds and related facilities per 1000 citizens is declining drastically in the United States.

This is the White House/British "cost effective" model of hospitals, promoted especially by Tony Blair, as an inherent part of their proposed Hitler health care "reforms" of limiting and denying care. UPMC CEO and President Jeffrey Romoff, now infamous in Pennsylvania, met on the sidelines of the G-20 Summit in Pittsburgh in September, with Sarah Brown, wife of British Prime Minister George Brown, and others, on furthering new globalist "medical partnerships."

UPMC was denounced at yesterday's rally, where several hundred protestors turned out in the rain. Their fight against shutting Braddock Hospital throws the spotlight on the national upsurge of protest against devastation to local economies, while Washington backs rampant globalism of all kinds. Over 2007-2009, 26 towns in Pennsylvania voted up the LPAC Home Owners and Bank Protection Act, including the Mon Valley town of Clairton.

Braddock's population today is 2700, collapsed from its height of 20,000 in the 1950s, during the steel production era. Most Braddock residents are black, many of them seniors and retired steelworkers, and the Borough Council President Jessee Brown, is pursuring the use of an injunction under the Civil Rights Act, to stop UPMC from shutting down Braddock Hospital. Brown said yesterday, "The entire valley has yet to fully recover from the decline of the steel industry. We cannot let UPMC devastate this community. We're just starting and we'll fight to the end." The rally was coordinated by the newly-formed "Save Our Community Hospitals (SOCH)."

Braddock Hospital, with 650 workers, is the largest employer in the Borough. The hospital cafeteria is the only restaurant in town; and has the only ATM machine in Braddock. Hundreds of retired steelworkers from the Mon Valley are served by the hospital. Travel to more distant facilities will be a burden; and will be deadly in case of medical emergency.

Variations of this "markets"-based hospital devastation are at different stages all across the United States, as the crash proceeds, taking down facilities of all sizes. A few indicative examples:

SOUTH:

Alabama. To stop the closure of the state's psychiatric care facility, Bryce Hospital in Tuscaloosa, local leaders have filed for an injunction in County Circuit Court, preventing any such recourse unless the state legislature expressly implements such a closure. Earlier this year, the Alice M. Kidd Nursing Home was shut by the state.

Florida. Gadsden County activists have staged several local rallies to demand the re-opening of the closed community hospital.

MIDWEST

Minnesota. Hennepin County Medical Center plans to cut 150 to 200 workers, close two clinics at its downtown Minneapolis/St. Paul campus, and stop seeing uninsured, non-emergency patients from other counties, because of a crippling loss of state health care funds. The state's biggest safety net hospital, and one of its premier teaching institutions, faces a 2010 budget that is "not sustainable," officials said Nov. 18. The downscaling is to occur in 2010, and was approved Nov. 18 by the hospital's board. The County Board of Supervisors will take up the matter in December for ratification.

WEST COAST

California. This week, approval was given to re-open in 2012 the Martin Luther King Hospital in South Los Angeles, which was shut down almost entirely in 2007, leaving 600,000 people in desperation for health care. The state university system is to run it, but the plan is a ruse without emergency measures to restore the economy.

EAST COAST

Pennsylvania. In the Greater Philidelphia region, Mercy Suburban Hospital in East Norriton announced this week that it will shut down its maternity care, which will make eight in the region that have closed obstetrics units in the past five years. This includes Northeastern Hospital in Philadelphia, which shut down entirely. Mercy Suburban will shut the unit by June 30, 2010.

In the Greater Pittsburgh region, Excela Westmoreland in Jeannette, shut down its maternity wing in early 2009. There is concern the hospital may shut down entirely.