Health Reform Roils Downton Abbey

(By – Jenny Gold, Kaiser Health News)

This season, Downton Abbey has a new plot line that has health wonks on the edge of their seats: a heated debate about hospital consolidation that closely parallels what’s going on in the U.S. health care system today.

If you’re not a Downton fan (and even if you are), here’s a quick plot recap.

It’s 1925 for the lords and ladies at Downton Abbey — think flapper dresses, cocktail parties and women’s rights. A big hospital in the nearby city of York is making a play to take over the Downton Cottage Hospital next to the posh estate. Or as Maggie Smith’s character, the Dowager Countess of Grantham, sees it, “The royal Yorkshire county hospital wants to take over our little hospital, which is outrageous!  Read more…

Kaiser Health News is a nonprofit national health policy news service that is part of the nonpartisan Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation.

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