Gov. Maura Healey ought to appoint MBTA General Manager Phillip Eng as the state’s hospital czar.

He certainly can’t do much worse than the people Healey has in place running — or not running — the health care system in Massachusetts.

Once touted as the state with “the best health care system in the country,” the system of late has turned into the MBTA.

Try telling the working-class citizens in and around Carney Hospital in Dorchester or the Nashoba Medical Center in Ayer how great the healthcare system is. You will get an earful.

Illegal immigrants are treated better.

Healey and Eng have a lot in common, though.

Healey shuts down hospitals the way Eng shuts down subway stations.

The difference is the Eng, who sits on a $3 billion budget, fixes the problems and opens the stations up again.

Healey, who sits on a $55 billion budget, shuts hospitals down and keeps them shut.

Too tough?  Consider:

Eng frequently talks about what he can and will do to make the MBTA better. Healey talks about what she cannot do to make the health care system better.

It may come as news to Healey, but residents of Massachusetts are stunned and angry that she did not go all out to keep Carney Hospital and Nashoba Medical Center from shutting down on Saturday.

It’s a wonder she did not blame Donald Trump.

If staffers hoped someone would do something before hospitals such as Carney shut down, they were wrong. As were a lot of people who thought their government was out to protect them, and not hurt them.

And that “somebody” does not include the governor. Healey early on (July) threw in the towel in the complicated legal and bankruptcy war with Steward Health Care over keeping the two hospitals open.

In a strange admission of powerlessness, Healey said, “Unfortunately, there is nothing I can do to stop the closure of the two hospitals, in particular that Steward has announced its closing.”

Nothing she can do? Then why is she governor?

Of the dozen governors I have known and covered, Healey is the first to say she could not do anything when faced with a problem, like the closing of two hospitals, which are lifelines for so many people.

What would she have done during the COVID pandemic?

This is not to say that former Gov. Charlie Baker solved the COVID problem, which broke out on his watch. But he did not say he couldn’t do anything about it. He tried everything, from masks to mandates.

The Steward problem, unlike COVID, did not sneak up on Healey. She was attorney general when Steward, milking its financial investment, was already headed for bankruptcy after suffering heavy losses with its hospitals in Massachusetts.

Past governors would have immediately created a special commission to save the hospitals or called for a special session of the Legislature.  Another governor might have summoned leaders of the medical community, hospital lobbyists, financial experts, legislative leaders to a top-level meeting.

Money is not the problem. The state is flush with some $9 billion in its rainy-day fund. It could have bought them and turned them over to the communities.  The state is already spending $1 billion a year to house and feed illegal immigrants.

But Healey is not alone at fault. We’ve got other progressive politicians like Sens. Eddie Markey and Elizabeth Warren who talk a lot but deliver little.

We’ve also got U.S Rep. Ayanna Pressley, who represents Dorchester where the Carney is located, and Rep. Lori Trahan who represents Nashoba and Ayer, who talk about  saving the planet when they cannot even save a hospital.

Trahan put out a press release telling her Nashoba constituents in need of urgent care to dial 911. Presumably they will be taken on a ride to Lowell General Hospital. Hopefully they’ll make it in time.

Surely the people deserve better.

None of these so-called political leaders even showed up at the hospitals to talk to the staff or to the community when the two hospitals shut down on Saturday.

Like they used to say about cops, you can’t find a politician when you need one.

Peter Lucas is a veteran political reporter. Email him at: peter.lucas@boston herald.com