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“… BY THE LAW OF INSANE ECONOMICS”

Dear Editor,

Re:  Kiniseli Lafaele on Health Care for Samoans (Samoa News: 2/6/2012).

After laboring through two issues of Samoa News, I was somewhat disappointed that when it came to the key question of where one stands with LBJ’s new 400% fee increases — literally rendering the hospital “off limits” for many of our people who no longer can afford the cost — Mr. Kiniseli Lafaele took a bailout and sided with the increases via a gymnastic semantics exercise.

Of course, one is free to think or believe as he pleases. But if I understand Mr. Kiniseli correctly, 400% to 500% fee increases are not necessarily “unreasonable” if the hospital is at the brink of bankruptcy (according to Kiniseli) and the “rationale” or justification for “screwing the poor” with draconian measures now applied by the hospital is somehow dictated by a so-called “law of economics”.

Whatever that is, I hope it is not being taught or promoted these days, for there appears to be a serious disconnect — on the humanitarian level – between Kiniseli’s adopted “law of economics” and the everyday economic struggle of our people.

 Ironically, if dire predictions about the present financial condition of the hospital are accurate (which I doubt very seriously), in a fit of absurdity, we may be approaching the prerequisite condition to achieving the cheapest form of health care system possible – just let people who cannot afford treatment die. 

G.M. Malala