Amen! Having just come out of a 6-day hospital stay, all I can do is agree wholeheartedly.

This might sound unrelated at first, but bear with me: Three nurses took turns from about midnight one night until 1:30 am trying to do a blood draw. I was already in a great deal of pain, and I was doing my best to cheer them up, because they were so stressed out.

Why?

The hospital has a team of expert phlebotomists. Who used to work around the clock. During the day, when they drew my blood, everything went smooth as silk.

But a big corporation recently acquired the little hospital chain, And the bean counters decided that it didn't make financial sense to continue paying phlebotomists for the night shift.

I guess that usually goes okay. Sure didn't go okay for me, and the nurses continually expressed their sympathies and apologies to me.

I mumbled something about bean counters making medical decisions, and all three of them nodded vigorously.

If there's anything the medical industry in the United States does "well" today, it's cutting services to the decided detriment of patient care.

The idea that somebody's making big bank off a tiny percentage of trans people taking HRT, well ... that's nothing but a ridiculous fantasy.

This stuff is so tiresome, so boring, and so predictable.

Sigh.