Patronage bad for Cook County's health

The Chicago Sun-Times reports:

Cook County runs an "archaic" health system set up to allow "a clear opportunity to use the system for political hiring," according to an analysis released Monday.

The six-month study by the Institute for Health Care Studies at Northwestern University notes that most health-care officials interviewed complained the Cook County Bureau of Health had too many patronage workers in key positions for it to operate effectively or efficiently.

That is among a number of problems facing the $926 million bureau, which is in drastic need of an overhaul in the way it delivers health care to the poor and uninsured, it says.

This is a glimpse of what nationalized health care will look like.