To the editor:, There were many factors weighing on the Hillsborough Township Committee’s recent unanimous decision to outsource emergency medical services to hospital conglomerate Robert Wood Johnson/Barnabas Health. Regardless of any of the variables that went into the eventual bid proposal by RWJ, there is one above all else that has been given little, if any, consideration. This entire process, no matter how you want to slice it, has been yet another sell out of essential public service to special interest., Forget about the fact that instead of six full ambulance crews at the ready during emergencies, we’ll only have two…with an option for a third from who-knows-where. HEMSCorp, even with all of their faults, is a not-for-profit organization. Their sole reason for existing is to administer their life saving services. All of the resources invested in them are supposed to be spent on maximizing those services., Robert Wood Johnson is a business. Their sole reason for existing is to make money. Their resources are invested in making more money. That’s not their fault. Businesses are supposed to make money. But how many times do we have to watch one of these massive companies pillage, plunder, and poison millions of people at a time to realize that maybe profit shouldn’t be our motive for absolutely everything? Do we really want decisions that are literally going to impact life and death left up to how they’re going to affect some far off investor’s portfolio? HEMSCorp doesn’t have to worry about turning a profit or keeping investors happy. All they have to do is their job. To HEMSCorp, we are neighbors. To Robert Wood Johnson, we are dollar signs., Don’t worry how the consultant who wrote the report RWJ used to create their bid proposal also worked for RWJ. The good news is that RWJ isn’t going to charge the township anything, at all, for the next five years. Pay nothing, at all, but keep everything you had before? Sign me up! Are we to assume that RWJ is just doing this out of the kindness of our hearts? Of course not. They are making money, and they are making it by charging far more directly to the users of their service. Do you know who also offers outrageous things seemingly for nothing? Used car salesman, crooked politicians, and evil genies hell bent on stealing your soul., Especially don’t ponder how the consultant’s report was custom tailored to the facilities only RWJ can provide. What this all really amounts to is just our own small piece of a much greater, and far more dangerous national phenomena; the belief that essential services will somehow be made better by the profit motive. The motivation to make money will inherently benefit whatever you’re making money from. For example, data show that privately-run charter schools vastly underperforming their public counterparts. The private, for-profit prison industry is vastly substandard and only serves the interest of locking up as many people as possible. Pharmaceutical profits are off the chart while we continue to be one of the least healthy first world nations. The entire reason our healthcare system is the worst in the developed world is because 20% of everything we spend is getting siphoned out by vacuous capital interest. Trillions of dollars of taxpayer money and resources is being diverted to the pockets and portfolios of people who have little reason to care at all about our communities; their allegiances lying solely with their own bottom lines., Really ignore how RWJ was the only entity to bid, and the Township Committee approved the measure unanimously after resounding public outcry. Introducing the profit motive to an essential service, like EMS, will inevitably cause the energies of that service to go towards maximizing profit, rather than maximizing service. We have no reason to doubt that the individual RWJ EMT’s will perform their duties admirably, but we have zero cause to believe the overall service provided by the corporation will even match what we have been providing in-house., In the end, it is politicians, elected officials sworn to protect the public interest, who are facilitating the fire sale of our community property. Those politicians that closed this sale will claim a win for the municipal budget, RWJ will expand its already hyper extended reach over our area, and we the people will be yet again stuck footing the bills of higher costs and poorer outcomes. If nothing else, our own little slice of the corporate takeover of America proves that we, the people, must become far more engaged at all stages of the political process, at all levels of government. If we wish to thrive in a society that is truly of, by, and for the people, then it is our duty and obligation to stand up, join together, and create it., Cristopher Crapello, Hillsborough,
To the editor:,
There were many factors weighing on the Hillsborough Township Committee’s recent unanimous decision to outsource emergency medical services to hospital conglomerate Robert Wood Johnson/Barnabas Health. Regardless of any of the variables that went into the eventual bid proposal by RWJ, there is one above all else that has been given little, if any, consideration. This entire process, no matter how you want to slice it, has been yet another sell out of essential public service to special interest.,
Forget about the fact that instead of six full ambulance crews at the ready during emergencies, we’ll only have two…with an option for a third from who-knows-where. HEMSCorp, even with all of their faults, is a not-for-profit organization. Their sole reason for existing is to administer their life saving services. All of the resources invested in them are supposed to be spent on maximizing those services.,
Robert Wood Johnson is a business. Their sole reason for existing is to make money. Their resources are invested in making more money. That’s not their fault. Businesses are supposed to make money. But how many times do we have to watch one of these massive companies pillage, plunder, and poison millions of people at a time to realize that maybe profit shouldn’t be our motive for absolutely everything? Do we really want decisions that are literally going to impact life and death left up to how they’re going to affect some far off investor’s portfolio? HEMSCorp doesn’t have to worry about turning a profit or keeping investors happy. All they have to do is their job. To HEMSCorp, we are neighbors. To Robert Wood Johnson, we are dollar signs.,
Don’t worry how the consultant who wrote the report RWJ used to create their bid proposal also worked for RWJ. The good news is that RWJ isn’t going to charge the township anything, at all, for the next five years. Pay nothing, at all, but keep everything you had before? Sign me up! Are we to assume that RWJ is just doing this out of the kindness of our hearts? Of course not. They are making money, and they are making it by charging far more directly to the users of their service. Do you know who also offers outrageous things seemingly for nothing? Used car salesman, crooked politicians, and evil genies hell bent on stealing your soul.,
Especially don’t ponder how the consultant’s report was custom tailored to the facilities only RWJ can provide. What this all really amounts to is just our own small piece of a much greater, and far more dangerous national phenomena; the belief that essential services will somehow be made better by the profit motive. The motivation to make money will inherently benefit whatever you’re making money from. For example, data show that privately-run charter schools vastly underperforming their public counterparts. The private, for-profit prison industry is vastly substandard and only serves the interest of locking up as many people as possible. Pharmaceutical profits are off the chart while we continue to be one of the least healthy first world nations. The entire reason our healthcare system is the worst in the developed world is because 20% of everything we spend is getting siphoned out by vacuous capital interest. Trillions of dollars of taxpayer money and resources is being diverted to the pockets and portfolios of people who have little reason to care at all about our communities; their allegiances lying solely with their own bottom lines.,
Really ignore how RWJ was the only entity to bid, and the Township Committee approved the measure unanimously after resounding public outcry. Introducing the profit motive to an essential service, like EMS, will inevitably cause the energies of that service to go towards maximizing profit, rather than maximizing service. We have no reason to doubt that the individual RWJ EMT’s will perform their duties admirably, but we have zero cause to believe the overall service provided by the corporation will even match what we have been providing in-house.,
In the end, it is politicians, elected officials sworn to protect the public interest, who are facilitating the fire sale of our community property. Those politicians that closed this sale will claim a win for the municipal budget, RWJ will expand its already hyper extended reach over our area, and we the people will be yet again stuck footing the bills of higher costs and poorer outcomes. If nothing else, our own little slice of the corporate takeover of America proves that we, the people, must become far more engaged at all stages of the political process, at all levels of government. If we wish to thrive in a society that is truly of, by, and for the people, then it is our duty and obligation to stand up, join together, and create it.,
Cristopher Crapello,
Hillsborough
