Babies will no longer be born in Henry County, Tennessee

Posted on by M.C. Atkins

I was born in 1966 here in Paris, Tennessee, in our local general hospital, which I think was established in 1953. Both my parents were born at home in 1938 which of course was the norm prior to the coming of these new modern hospitals.  

So, the powers-that-be at the Henry County Medical Center (where I was born) have recently declared that they are shutting down its obstetrics unit. 

It should be pointed out that Paris (founded in 1823) has a population of roughly 10,000 and is the county seat of Henry County, with a population of roughly 32,000. For a rural county we are prosperous enough. What we lack in wealth though we make up in being culturally stable, where the indigenous peoples now live in peace, and newcomers, those who have moved here since 1865, and especially since 1945, are by and large good folks who have blended in quite nicely. 

A regular neo-Mayberry. Indeed a slice of Americana.

With the understanding that I have no inside connexions and am rather ill-informed, and but observing from the bleachers, my first question is, how can a county of 32,000 not afford a facility to birth babies? If market forces were a driving factor, would the powers-that-be be closing our OB unit?

To get to the answer I want to propose that we divide these powers-that-be into two groups. Those at the top and those in the middle.

Those in the middle are doctors, administrators, bureaucrats, and the like, within government, insurance companies, and the hospitals themselves. Those who run the show and make the tactical decisions.

Those at the top are first the theorists, as well as legislators, governors, and titans of industry. Those who see, or try to see, or maybe ought to try to see the big picture, who, operating from first principles, build systems, and who control the levers of real power.

My assumption is that the powers-that-be in the middle saw this coming, or at least could have or should have. Could they have avoided the closure?

I dont know. Or were their hands tied by a system created by those at the top. 

Again, I dont know. I like to imagine that those in the middle have been operating in good faith, want what is best for their people, and are competent. Not always the case, this I know.

So if we are losing our baby-unit because we are too poor, fine. We will still keep making babies and once in the oven, the wee tot is coming out wherever mama happens to be at the time. We’ll figure something out.

But if we are losing it due to non-market forces, then I want to understand what those forces are and the answer must be at the top. 

So, is the loss of our OB unit an intended or unintended consequence of the system that the powers-and-theorists-that-be-at-the-top built? Was this closure meant to happen? Is it the result of some broad, strategic reshuffling of the medical industry? Or was it the result of a lack of foresight, bad ideas, or even corruption?

Again, I dont know, but I hope that those at the top are patriots who love We the People and are seeking a systemic fix for the benefit of We the People.

Regardless, I posit that if we are searching for the root of the problem we will not find it at the top in the halls of power, or in the middle in back offices.

Looking at things from the 80,000 foot level through the prism of basic human nature, it seems to me that the root of the problem is We the People at the bottom and our almost unconquerable greed and shortsightedness. For generations we have said to the powers-that-would-be, give us bread, give us something for nothing, and we will give you power. 

The result appears to have been the removal of market forces in the U.S. medical industry which has resulted in distortions such as my county of 32,000 losing its obstetrics unit, as well as artificially high prices throughout the system, and quite likely the systemic degradation of medicine in America.

After all, you will no longer be able to have wee babes here in Henry County unless you want to go old school and have them at home.

M.C. Atkins

Published by M.C. Atkins

I have six wee bairns who are all seventh-generation Henry County, Tennessee, and all from the same doe. It is the people of Henry County that I most want to reach but I am writing to Southerners generally. I am without credentials but rather dare to speak by the same authority as the little boy who cried 'The king has no clothes!' My core belief and starting point is that like everything, we humans have a nature, it is not so hard to understand, and to pretend that it is other than it is, is to jump off a cliff. Which is what we Americans have in fact done.

1 thought on “Babies will no longer be born in Henry County, Tennessee”

  1. “. . . the root of the problem is We the People at the bottom and our almost unconquerable greed and shortsightedness.”

    Yes, this is the root, and this is what has fostered the medical insurance system and destroyed the good practice of medicine in this country. I would not give the insurance companies, nor the bureaucrats who run them and the hospitals, a free pass from blame. They are the shoots from the rotten root. However, I do not blame the doctors, most of whom are well-meaning, who are not allowed to practice medicine as they would like because of the control of insurance companies.

    So, what’s the answer? Obviously, the root has to be fixed so that means We the People, doesn’t it? Are we going to abandon our greed, taking more than we need, or are we going to demand more and more goods and luxuries without having to pay for them? Are we going to continue to live lives of greed and luxury, ignoring the poor around us and in the world?

    But “We the People” is made of individual persons, you and me and my neighbor. So, more to the point: Am I going to give up MY greed and MY luxury so I can be part of the solution and stop contributing to the problem?

    “For a rural county we are prosperous enough.” Perhaps a topic for another day is the poverty around us. I did not realize it until I started working as a substitute teacher in the public schools here. The poverty is profound. But, a topic for another day . . .

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