Rep. Tlaib blames hospitals' pandemic struggles on 'broken health care system'

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Rep. Tlaib blames 'broken health care system' for hospitals' struggles during pandemic

Michigan Rep. Rashida Tlaib questions HHS inspector general Christi Grimm during House Oversight Committee on Oversight and Reform briefing on the Trump administration's response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

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Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., on Tuesday railed against those pushing for the economy to reopen while rejecting the notion that hospitals should be able to perform elective procedures to generate income to help them treat coronavirus patients.

During a House Oversight Committee hearing, Tlaib responded to remarks from ranking member Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, by saying that it is not the economic shutdown's fault that hospitals are struggling -- and that rather it is the fault of the health care system in general.

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"I hear people saying some of the hospitals are struggling now, the ranking member talked about that, but I want you all to know this is a pandemic, a global pandemic," Tlaib said. "People are dying at such a huge rate, past what even the Vietnam War, our loss of loved ones then, and hospitals are closing, they’re struggling, when we have some of the sickest people right now around the country. That tells you that something’s wrong with our health care system."

Tlaib recognized the "uncertain times and the fact that we didn’t know enough about, and we still don’t know enough about COVID," blasting those who say the economy is the problem.

"But to say that it was because of the economy’s shut down, because we did it? No," she said, stating that the country was unprepared for the pandemic and lacked a health care system to handle it.

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Jordan had previously said that "hospitals are itching to start their elective surgeries and procedures … that generate revenue for them," claiming that the economy should be reopened now that the curve of cases has flattened. Tlaib wanted no talk of this, preferring to claim that the health care system as a whole was the culprit, although she did not explain how a different system might have been better.

"We’ve had so many deaths and health care providers and hospitals are struggling," Tlaib said. "That tells you that we have a broken health care system and we should be looking at that specifically, versus waiting and trying to point blame at folks where I don’t think any of us wanted to see this many people die or to see any of our hospitals or anybody struggle right now."

Earlier this month Tlaib said that Congress had not gone far enough in addressing the economic crisis. She claimed that the stimulus payments sent to American individuals and families were not enough, and that people should get $2,000 every month for the duration of the pandemic.

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One specific issue Tlaib addressed during Tuesday's hearing was how money was apportioned to health care providers in her state, specifically how wealthier hospitals received more money from the government than ones like those in her district that had more COVID-19 cases.

"How does the hardest-hit district in Michigan, and one of the hardest-hit in the country ... receive the least amount of funds of any congressional district in the state?” Tlaib asked Principal Deputy Inspector General for the Department of Health and Human Services Christi Grimm. Tlaib asked if the IG's office would look into the methods behind distributing funds, and Grimm said that it "could be an issue" that is examined in the future.