ACLU of Kentucky

This letter to the editor appeared in the October 31st edition of the Courier-Journal

On October 19^th, the Louisville Metro Board of Public Health held a panel discussion about the hospital merger, which gave University of Louisville Hospital, Jewish/St. Mary Hospital System and Catholic Health Care Initiatives a chance to answer the community’s questions.  It is commendable that these three merger partners gave the community a chance to answer questions; however this dialogue needed to start months ago and not after the deal is seemingly done. 

With that being said we did find out a few answers about what health care will be like under after the merger at the University of Louisville Hospital.  The first is that according to University Medical Center president James Taylor, the hospital is “doing just fine”.  In fact, a Business First article from July 2010, reported that the UMC posted a $15.3 million profit in 2009.  After the merger where will those profits go?  Will they go back to the University, for more care, or will those profits go back to CHI’s Denver headquarters?  Without access to the contracts, the public will never know.

We also learned that University of Louisville Hospital would no longer dispense birth control.  The panel said that would not dispense birth control prescriptions that are written at the hospital, but that women would be free to have the prescription filled at the pharmacy of their choice.  What they failed to state is that for most women, the pharmacy of choice would be the one at the University of Louisville Hospital.