The Clergy Community Coalition has tried multiple times to collect the necessary 1,250 signatures to place a property tax increase on the ballot to fund a municipal hospital in what they’re calling a “hospital desert” on Dayton’s West Side. Now they have them, what’s next is what really matters.
But let’s be honest: this is too little, too late. The people in power already got what they wanted when they tore down Good Samaritan Hospital. Not because it was obsolete or unnecessary, but because demolition is where the money is. It’s been the same scam for decades: tear something down, steer a contract, funnel the money, and call it progress. If you need a reminder, look up the FBI’s “Culture of Corruption” investigation, formally titled Operation Demolished Integrity. This isn’t speculation. It’s documented.
Need more proof? The City Commission passed an emergency ordinance to buy two buildings worth a negative $1.4 million, then paid $1.4 million to acquire them. Why? To tear them down. And send more money through the same tired political machine that thrives on campaign donations and bags of cash (yes, the FBI had video of a City official taking a bag of cash).
Had Good Sam remained standing, we would’ve had nearly 900 beds available after the 2019 tornadoes, plus kitchens, backup power, and medical infrastructure to respond to one of the worst natural disasters in recent memory. Or we could’ve had a dedicated COVID hospital, isolating infected patients and preventing cross-contamination. Today, it could have served as a full-service psychiatric facility, large enough to offload a good portion of the jail’s population, which we’re currently warehousing and medicating with taxpayer money in an unfit environment.
But none of that happened. Why? Because Dayton doesn’t have a healthcare system. It has a cartel.
The Duopoly from Hell
Premier Health and Kettering Health have a chokehold on the region. Together with their joint lobbying arm, the Greater Dayton Area Hospital Association, they control nearly every hospital bed, every ER, and every provider network in Montgomery County. This is a de facto illegal duopoly. They operate in plain sight, colluding on prices, avoiding competition, and snuffing out any outside threats.
When St. Elizabeth’s closed, Premier didn’t just leave it empty. They gutted the facility to prevent any other provider from using it. When Dayton Heart Hospital tried to launch, Premier got the city to un-zone the land. These aren’t just business decisions. They’re gatekeeping tactics. And the political establishment has enabled it.
No other hospital network has entered this market, not because they didn’t want to, but because Premier and Kettering made sure they couldn’t. Mercy Health, OSU’s Wexner Medical Center, and others had eyes on Dayton. But they were kept out.
A Smarter Path Forward
Now, the idea of a public hospital might sound noble. But let’s get real. Do you trust this city’s leadership to run a hospital? These are the same people who can’t consistently keep pools open or rec centers staffed. They’ve barely kept City Hall from tipping over. And you want them managing an ICU?
That doesn’t mean the idea is worthless. It just needs a smarter frame.
Instead of trying to run a traditional hospital, the Clergy Community Coalition could build a health care hub, a medical complex structured more like a shopping center. Lease space to independent providers. Offer a platform to national networks who’ve been locked out. Create a landing pad for specialists, imaging centers, and ambulatory surgical units. Empower doctors who are tired of working under the thumb of Dayton’s health care cartel.
Then comes the real innovation: create a local health plan available to all Dayton residents on a sliding scale. Let small businesses buy into the plan based on individual need. Right now, if I want to offer coverage to just one employee, someone who actually wants it, I can’t. It’s all or nothing. Even if I don’t need coverage myself, because I have VA care, I’d have to buy in. Another key employee has a spouse with gold-plated coverage. That kind of rigidity kills small business competitiveness and forces too many employers to stay out of the benefits game altogether. A local health plan changes that.
Offer the plan to Dayton Public Schools, the City of Dayton, Montgomery County. Lower their costs and redirect the savings into re-populating our urban core, public works, or actual patient care. That’s economic development. That’s systemic change.
What It Could Look Like: Other Cities Have Tried Smarter Models
If this sounds radical, it’s not. Other communities have done this, and made it work.
In Camden, New Jersey, the Camden Coalition of Healthcare Providers, led by Dr. Jeffrey Brenner, tackled the costliest patients first, those who bounced between ERs and urgent care like pinballs. By integrating care and focusing on social determinants, they improved health outcomes and dramatically cut costs. Not a hospital, but a smarter approach to health.
In Austin, Texas, the city, county, and university system partnered to launch the Dell Medical School, funded by a local property tax approved by voters. Rather than mimic a traditional hospital model, they focused on population health, innovation, and community-based partnerships. It’s now a magnet for public-private collaboration that improves both care and the economy.
In the Bronx, Montefiore Health System built out community hubs that don’t just treat illness. They help with housing, food access, and even legal issues. It’s health care as part of a support system. The kind that prevents emergencies instead of just responding to them.
UPDATE
Local visionary, architect, and my former neighbor, Matt Sauer, pointed me to Houston’s public hospital. We should look closely at this.
In Houston, Texas, the Harris Health System provides a county-funded public health network that serves as both safety net and economic engine. Chronic under-insurance hasn’t stopped the system from delivering high-quality care, just the opposite. Anchored by hospitals like Ben Taub, Harris Health is funded by local property taxes, not private equity or insurance premiums. It treats patients based on need, not coverage, and has become one of the city’s largest employers and training centers. As captured in Dr. Ricardo Nuila’s The People’s Hospital, the system proves that public investment in people’s health can be more efficient, more ethical, and more effective than Dayton’s for-profit cartel model. Voters recently backed a $2.5 billion bond to expand services, showing strong public support for a system that delivers not just care, but stability, jobs, and hope. For cities like Dayton, it’s a model of how health care can be infrastructure, and an economic development engine, that would make Dayton a stronger, fairer, and more economically forward thinking city.
Real Economic Development Starts with Health
Forget tax incentives for chip fabs or Amazon warehouses. Real economic development starts with healthy people and affordable care. When health care is a local asset instead of a corporate racket, it lowers barriers for entrepreneurs, attracts families, and reduces the long-term cost of poverty. Unlike tech startups or convention centers, a community health care system can’t be outsourced or relocated. NCR, Mead, Standard Register, Reynolds & Reynolds and even Lexis Nexis have left us holding the bag. Remember how the Gettysburg Kroger closed the moment the agreement ran out? We’ve tried to buy jobs, and lost.
No other city has dared to do this. Dayton could. Dayton should. Because where else can you buy a house for less than a used car (I bought mine for $14,500), and maybe, just maybe, have access to care that doesn’t send you into bankruptcy?
This isn’t about building something new to remember Good Sam. It’s about building something the cartel doesn’t control. Something the community owns. Something that gives Dayton an edge, not just over illness, but over indifference.
Song: The Dayton Cartel Blues, by David Esrati
Ohio hospitals risk closures, spiking health care prices, physician losses, and could see more than $9 billion in decreased health care spending over the next decade if an estimated 10 million Americans lose insurance coverage. Rural hospitals will be devastated.
https://www.dispatch.com/story/news/healthcare/2025/06/23/federal-budget-bill-cost-ohio-hospitals-billions/84285402007/
Trump’s new monster bill is projected to cut $1 trillion from Medicaid and Affordable Care Act insurance plans and eliminate insurance coverage for 11.8 million people over the next decade, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office. Another 5 million could lose health insurance.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2025/07/03/trump-tax-bill-taxes-medicaid-affects-americans/84450321007/
President Trump and Congressional Republicans love the megabill, mainly because it robs from the poor to give to them – the rich! Native Ohioan Vice President J. D. Vance loved it so much he broke the Senate tiebreaker to keep the bill in play. US House Rep. Mike Turner (OH-10) and both Ohio Senators Jon Husted and Bernie Moreno loved it so much they voted for it, sometimes twice (Turner).
“… On average, people earning less than about $55,000 a year would be net losers from the House bill, according to the CBO forecast. Middle-income taxpayers would save between $500 and $1,000 a year, while the top 10% would see gains of about $12,000…”
https://www.npr.org/2025/07/02/nx-s1-5454598/the-gops-massive-bill-would-add-trillions-of-dollars-to-the-countrys-debt
Yet, Trump’s Congressional boondoggle comes with a steep price for American taxpayers, adding $3.4 trillion to the national debt over the next decade, per the Congressional Budget Office. “… Compared with CBO’s January 2025 baseline budget projections, it would increase deficits over the 2025?2034 period by $3.4 trillion…”
https://www.cbo.gov/publication/61537
Republicans are not fiscal conservatives, no matter what they preach. As long as their pockets are getting filled by your tax dollars, they are happy and don’t care if you are not.
During 2020, the final year of Trump’s first presidency, more than 450,000 Americans died from COVID-19. Many deaths were avoidable. Life expectancy fell by 1.13 years. Trump’s incompetency and evil response to the pandemic was self-evident with health-harming policies and actions. Hospital staff and patients needlessly suffered as the tragedy unfolded and deaths climbed.
https://www.marketwatch.com/story/dr-birx-tells-congress-that-the-2020-election-distracted-trump-white-house-from-pandemic-response-11635356214
We also witnessed certain members of the public being stupid and believing the uninformed, crazy ideas spilling from Trump’s mouth.
https://youtu.be/PAauiLx3AvQ?si=wmlUz4X0ipLdZaHs&t=7
They continue in his second administration. Trump and his administration have not learned from the COVID-19 pandemic, which is evident from the current measles outbreak continuing to soar. Bleach in the lungs (Trump) or cod liver oil / vitamin A for measles (Kennedy) were some recommendations made to American citizens. Stupid is as stupid does, apparently.
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/trumps-policy-failures-have-exacted-a-heavy-toll-on-public-health1/
If we learned one thing during the COVID-19 pandemic, it was that employed Americans lost their healthcare coverage along with their jobs. Healthcare coverage should not be tied to employment full stop. Healthcare should be portable and tied to the person who is being covered. I advocate healthcare for all, no matter how we pay for it. It can be done.
Good science and public health yield good outcomes. It’s time we paid attention.
I’ve added an update to this post.
While these things all look pretty on paper the reality is that Dayton can’t afford this type of thing. We have like a 30% poverty rate.
I read about Houston and what they’ve accomplished but Houston’s largest employers aren’t hospitals and CareSource.
Medicare and Medicaid laws make it nearly impossible for private practices to thrive because of their liability insurance requirements and red tape.
So, let’s pretend this is approved and passes. Rents will increase and if HUD takes a hit the housing market will fail far more than what we are already seeing. Why? Because the people of NW Dayton want a hospital within a mile of their home?
Please don’t use the tornadoes as a means to promote this hospital that would’ve done nothing to ease the suffering of those affected. And, yes… I FULLY understand its devastation. Its impact is still very visible six years later, I see it everyday.
If they want this to actually work it will NEED to be a countywide effort. Dayton has under 150,000 residents and SIX full sized hospitals within a ten mile radius. Houston has 12 for 2.2 million people.
Listen to Sharon. She smart!
Sharon, do you have any supporting facts/statistics for David’s readers? Potter/Elizabeth is already convinced, but I would like more information, if you have it. Thanks!
Our region has a lot more hospitals than I knew. The Greater Dayton Area Hospital Association (GDAHA), an Ohio lobbying and trade group nonprofit, shows a number of hospital locations in Montgomery and surrounding counties, per GDAHA’s website. I assume this includes all of the Kettering Health’s satellite sites listed separately.
https://gdaha.org/about-us/
Unfortunately, there are no hospitals in the ENTIRE western half of Montgomery County and ALL of Preble County, if the GDAHA web page is correct. What does GDAHA do for the greater Dayton, Ohio citizens and taxpayers?
Per its website, GDAHA does this: “… Currently, we serve 29 member hospitals and health organizations in the eleven-county greater Dayton area. Our hospitals have an $8.1 billion impact on our area’s economy and they employ 44,452 people. As you can imagine, local, state, and federal healthcare legislative activity has increased in recent years. We act as a determined advocate working to protect the interests of our members…”
I would love to know GDAHA’s take on the impact of the megabill Trump and Congress just passed and what did GDAHA advocate for? Republican US House Reps. Mike Turner (OH-10, a 2x voter of the Trump bill) and Warren Davidson (OH-8, a flip-flopper no to yes) should explain what their constituents will get in affordable medical care in the coming months and years.
Here are the board members for GDAHA. You will recognize some familiar names.
https://gdaha.org/about-us/board-of-trustees/
How many hospitals will be involved when this is over. Sooner or later, they’ll cut you down.
https://bsky.app/profile/joshtpm.bsky.social/post/3ltpd2udjhs24
Leviticus 19:33-34
Pray for the innocent lambs going to slaughter.
It appears this lady has a hospital problem. Her veteran Dad is not getting good medical care. She calls it a death sentence.
https://bsky.app/profile/patriottakes.bsky.social/post/3lu62mxyjq22v
She and Dad made their opinions known. Will she have to worry her Mom (AAPI/war bride?) will be deported for no good / legal reason?
https://www.facebook.com/michelle.lynn.930544/
https://www.facebook.com/michelle.mathews.980?comment_id=Y29tbWVudDoxMTM3NzMxODE4MzU5ODk3XzU4MjY2NjYxNDUxNjE0NQ%3D%3D
Real life choices have real life consequences.
Meanwhile, GDAHA’s website shows there are no hospitals in western Montgomery County or in all of Preble County, Ohio. Where do those residents go for an emergency or healthcare?
Vote like your life depends upon it because it might.
It’s Trumps fault the hospitals are failing ? WTF. Melissa, you are nuts.
Barack Hussein Obama denied the Dooley elected president. Trump, the peaceful transition of power by trying to frame him for treason.
Now we get to see what happens when you do stupid shit like the Obama administration did in 2016 making up the Russia Russia, Russia, hoax.
Maybe once we get all the illegal aliens out of the damn country the hospitals won’t be so overcrowded and won’t have to eat so many non-paid bills.
Starting to get good pay close attention ! LMFAO !
Tim, you don’t see the connection between loss of healthcare / insurance coverage for thousands of people, decreased hospital Medicaid funding, the growing deficit, and the Big A$$ Bill Trump and Congressional Republicans just passed? It involves a lot of numbers.
I know it’s a lot to take in what with MAGA being all butt hurt right now. You write everything is LMFAO funny, but there are lots of tears and disbarred lawyers in Trump’s wake.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oOlKraxoMzc
Trump just got checked out using his superb taxpayer paid healthcare. Did you see he has a bad case of the cankles? The next thing you’ll tell me is that Q has prescribed adrenochrome for Trump and he will get younger in time. It was reported in the Epstein interview tapes that Trump and Melania first had sex on Jeffrey Epstein’s plane. No wonder she was so comfortable inside a plane for her 2000 British GQ mag nude spread. She’s going to have to keep up with her old man.
Ohio’s own “The Rooster”, D. J. Byrnes, had this to say recently about Dayton, Ohio born Les Wexner. His dad, Harry Wexner, was born in Russia. Les Wexner has his own namesake hospitals in Columbus, Ohio, including one for kids. “Chester the Molester” Jeffrey Epstein financially managed Les Wexner’s many rubles, shekels and Benjamins. Kudos to Byrnes for the excellent work exposing the pervs for what they are.
https://www.rooster.info/p/les-wexner-jeffrey-epstein-columbus-ohio
Laughter IS the best medicine and these may tickle your funny bone to tears!
https://bsky.app/profile/trump-into-space.bsky.social
Obama‘s whole administrations is about ready to get indicted. I’m feeling pretty comfy right about now. Thank you very much.
The Democrats are going down just like I said just enjoy the show ….
If there was any information in the Epstein files, don’t you think your boy Joe Biden would’ve had it released? Come on use your brain.
Trump voting Republicans protect pedophiles and perverts who victimize young girls and boys. Why is that?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KLcfpU2cubo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1jDPzW9COsU
Many of these young girls and boys grew up, had continuing trauma, sought medical and mental health care (in hospitals), and some killed themselves because they couldn’t endure the pain of what had happened to them. Yet their rich perpetrators went on to sin, crime, and Lord their power over other victims, time and time again. Why is that?
Never lawyer U.S. House Rep. Jim Jordan (OH-4) was to be deposed last Friday (July 18th) for his part in the Ohio State University sex scandal. Jordan is a little lying pipsqueak of a man who could not hide out any longer, ignoring subpoenas. Why is that?
https://www.dispatch.com/story/news/local/2025/07/17/ohio-state-dr-richard-strauss-scandal-deposition-details-leak/85239433007/
Get a trial of HBO and watch for yourself: Surviving Ohio State. The trailer is on YouTube.
Here’s hoping the medical community and social scientists can eventually figure out what’s wrong with these sick, twisted perverts. They must be removed from public office, prosecuted, and jailed asap where they can no longer harm children, further rape lady justice, and pillage the rule of law. I pray that will be the case.
oh it’s coming out about Obama trying to frame Trump as a Russian agent. It’s all coming out and that’ll be conspiracy charges or treason at worst.
Hey Dave, do a deep dive on how Obama tried to frame Trump !
The crap about Republicans not wanting the Epstein files out is BS.
Trump is in the files but as an informant don’t you think Joes team would’ve brought any bad information out concerning Trump before the election? Sure they would’ve.
A year ago, the panicans told us that President Trump couldn’t beat Kamala Harris in a general election.
Two years ago, they said that Trump couldn’t beat DeSantis in a primary for president.
Three years ago, they said Trump is going to prison.
They dont know shit. Never have.
@Tim, they weren’t trying to “Frame Trump as a Russian agent”- he is a Russian agent. Full stop.
President Donald Trump talks up the Epstein files of “Comey, Obama, Biden, Russia, Russia, Russia“, but Trump’s Attorney General Pam Bondi said in her memo there aren’t any files. Trump’s Press Secretary, not so sweet Karoline Leavitt, stands silently next to Trump while he spews the lies, his stock in trade.
https://bsky.app/profile/atrupar.com/post/3ltzhhb62oy2n
Judging from that juvenile AI social media post Trump just made of “jailed” former President Obama, it’s evident President Trump has never recovered from President Obama’s rapier-like public humiliation of Trump at the White House Correspondents Dinner.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Htt91G2qDwM
The birther lies Felon Trump and his third wife Melania Knauss have peddled are a testament to their lack of character, class, and morality. Yugoslavian born Melanija Knavs came to New York City in 1996 (possibly sooner) and did modeling work under a series of visas. While an immigrant, she met Donald Trump in 1998, who was only two years younger than her dad, Viktor Knavs. In 2001, three years after she met Trump, Melania got an EB1 “Einstein” visa (she was NOT a super model). She married Trump in 2005 and and popped out baby Barron in 2006. She eventually became a naturalized US citizen in 2006. Sugar daddy – check. Anchor baby – check. Bring mom and adulterer dad over the pond – check.
https://www.mercurynews.com/2025/06/26/melania-trump-mocked-for-getting-einstein-visa-in-house-hearing/
Donald Trump can never blow off the stink of his past activities with Jeffrey Epstein. Neither can Melania. Their deceit and perpetual lies will haunt them to their last breath and beyond.
Russian agent ? Dave you have lost you damn mind….. a Russian agent has the biggest military spending bill in history. How does your tiny brain make that shit compute there, buddy?
A safety net hospital would be great and I’m sure would be welcomed by Premier. For years Miami Valley Hospital has served as that and I imagine they would love the increase in payor mix should it happen. But the cost to build and maintain a full service hospital will continue to prevent it from happening.
Also the buildings of Good Sam were no longer sustainable. Anyone suggesting they could still be in use never saw behind the scenes of that place.