As the UMC Turns

According to a Las Vegas Sun editorial today, a consequence of the decision to close the outpatient clinic for chemo-therapy at the poorly-managed, taxpayer-funded, government-run, unionized UMC hospital in Las Vegas was that “cancer patients were cut off from essential treatment.”

There’s that word again: “essential.”

But a story in the exact same Las Vegas Sun edition this morning tells a rather different story.

“A bill to force UMC to reopen its outpatient cancer clinic to care for the indigent seems unlikely to help the very patients who have lost access to that therapy,” reports Marshall Allen. “(Clark County) officials say those indigent cancer patients – the ones targeted for help by the proposed legislation – are not going without care because the county is paying for them to receive it from other providers.”

So tell me again what all the commotion is about?

Oh, and get this…

In a letter-to-the-editor published in the Sun on Sunday, the state’s leading elected socialist, Democrat Assemblywoman Sheila Leslie of Reno, went out of her way “to point out that the decision to close the cancer center was made by Clark County, not the Nevada Legislature.”

“The cost of keeping the doors open at the cancer clinic was $3.5 million, according to testimony we heard,” Leslie wrote. “There are many ways Clark County and UMC could have saved $3.5 million through increased efficiencies, improved management, or by reducing costs in other areas of the county’s budget. Instead, they chose to close the doors of the cancer clinic. I believe that was the wrong decision.”

Increased efficiencies? Improved management? Setting spending priorities? Yikes. Leslie almost sounds like, dare I say it, a Republican!

Let’s see if those same suggestions are applied to spending decisions the California liberal will weigh later this legislative session. I’m guessing they’ll be gone with the wind.

Oh, and here’s something else we haven’t heard much about regarding the clinic’s closing.

As Ms. Leslie pointed out, the decision to shut down the cancer clinic was made by the Clark County Commission. Now here’s a trivia question for you: How many Republicans currently serve on the Clark County Commission? Time’s up. The correct answer, class, is…zero.

Now, if it had been a heartless GOP-dominated commission which closed down a government cancer clinic, the mainstream press would be all over it like white on rice. Funny how things seem to work out that way sometimes, isn’t it?

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