142nd APHA Annual Meeting and Exposition

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Human Rights and healthcare in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans

142nd APHA Annual Meeting and Exposition (November 15 - November 19, 2014): http://www.apha.org/events-and-meetings/annual
Tuesday, November 18, 2014 : 11:10 AM - 11:30 AM

K. Brad Ott, BA, MA , Southern University at New Orleans, New Orleans, LA
  
Audio (mp3) recording Recorded Presentation (mp4)
Amidst the worst disaster to impact a major U.S. city in one hundred years, New Orleans’ main trauma and safety net medical center, the Reverend Avery C. Alexander Charity Hospital, was permanently closed. Charity’s administrative operator, Louisiana State University (LSU), ordered an end to its attempted reopening by its workers and U.S. military personnel in the weeks following the August 29, 2005 storm. I assert that Charity Hospital was closed as a result of disaster capitalism.LSU, backed by Louisiana state officials, took advantage of the mass internal displacement of New Orleans’ populace in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in an attempt to abandon Charity Hospital’s iconic but neglected facility and to supplant its original safety net mission serving the poor and uninsured for its neoliberal transformation to favor LSU’s academic medical enterprise.

Addendum: Taking advantage of a 2012 U.S. Congressional cut in Federal Medical Assistance Percentage (FMAP) reimbursement, Louisiana Governor Pyuish “Bobby” Jindal has nearly succeeded in privatizing the LSU Charity Hospital system that originated from New Orleans’ Charity Hospital – leaving potentially grave healthcare and human rights implications.

 

*The Closure of New Orleans’ Charity Hospital after Hurricane Katrina: A Case off Disaster Capitalism, Thesis by K. Brad Ott. 2012. University of New Orleans

Learning Areas:

Provision of health care to the public
Public health or related public policy

Learning Objectives:
Describe the loss of New Orleans’ public healthcare safety net rooted in Charity Hospital following Hurricane Katrina Discuss whether or not the closure of New Orleans’ Charity Hospital was the result of “disaster capitalism” Assess the human rights implications of Charity’s closure, as well as the impact of privatization upon public hospitals and safety net healthcare nationwide

Keyword(s): Human Rights, Hospitals

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: Adjunct Professor of Sociology, Delgado Community College; Director, Advocates for Louisiana Public Healthcare
Any relevant financial relationships? No

I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.

Back to: 4108.0: APHA IHRC- The New New Orleans: Nine Years Post-Katrina