The Healing Presence of God

"Through our exceptional health care services, we reveal the healing presence of God."


This is the mission statement of SSM heathcare, the evil organization that owns the hospital I work at. Apparently the healing presence of God is only present if you have insurance since SSM has decided to close the hospital that I work at because the community is full of uninsured and medicaid patients and they are losing money. They may be losing money at that hospital (horrible management has something to do with it too but that's a post for a later date) but the organization has something like 1.3 billion (yes, that's BILLION) dollars sitting in an account somewhere because their other hospitals are making money. They are using that money to build and expand in insured areas and turning their backs on the poor. I'm no bleeding heart liberal, and I do have issues with people who use medicaid as a way of life rather than a temporary solution (another post for a later date), and I am somewhat biased because I want to keep my job, but how the hell can you turn your backs on people who need heath care and still have the audacity to use God's name in your mission statement? Do you really think God would turn his back on people because they have jobs with no insurance benefits or no job at all? Or because they are on medicaid? Some of those medicaid patients are on medicaid for legitimate reasons like disability which is why they need health care (we have many patients with end stage renal disease). What about all the elderly patients in that community, where are they going to go? Oh, that's right, that's medicare which doesn't pay much either so why would SSM want to take care of them? SSM even has the gall to put this statement on their website, "SSM Health Care exists to care for the people of its communities regardless of their ability to pay." Healing presence of God my ass.