The R.A.T.S Supreme Court (+Kennedy) legalizes American Fascism
Friday, 29 January 2010 15:34
R.A.T.S. = Roberts Alito, Thomas, Scalia.
Partial Transcript:
Fascism is a word that is overused when one political interest group is describing the bad conduct of another opposition political interest group. The politics of fascism is not difficult to understand. But I have heard plenty of college professors complicate the definition of fascism to the point that it would be tough to recognize if it knocked on your front door. At the core of fascism, you will always find unchecked power of big money industrialists controlling the messages of mass media. You could search the history books forever and you would never find an instance where those two essential elements of fascism were not present. Typically, it occurs when a powerful political leader gains the backing of monied industrialists and together with force they silence the watchdog voice of mass media. But last week, it was the U.S. Supreme Court that laid the groundwork for a powerful political leader to join well-financed industrialists and gain control over America's airways. The Court determined that a company like Exxon could use as much of their $40 billion annual profits as they chose to wage limitless corporate media campaigns against any political opponent who opposes Exxon's gluttonous view of the world.
A front in the national health care battle has opened in New York City, where a major hospital chain and one of the nation’s largest insurance companies are locked in a struggle over control of treatment and costs that could have broad ramifications for millions of people with private health insurance.
The fight is between Continuum Health Partners, a consortium of five New York hospitals, including Beth Israel Medical Center and St. Luke’s-Roosevelt Hospital Center, both major teaching hospitals, and UnitedHealthcare.
The prestigious hospitals and the major health insurer have been in bitter contract negotiations, not just over rates but also over UnitedHealthcare’s demand that the hospitals notify the insurance company within 24 hours after a patient’s admission. If a hospital failed to do so, UnitedHealthcare would cut its reimbursements for the patient by half.
UnitedHealthcare says the proposed rule is meant to improve the quality of care and cut costs by allowing insurance case managers to jump in right away. The hospitals say that having their reimbursement cut in half is too much to pay for a clerical error, and that the revenue drain would ultimately hurt their patients.
The dispute signals a “ratcheting up” of a long tradition of insurers trying to cut costs, said Jeffrey Rubin, an economics professor at Rutgers University.
When Nataline Sarkisyan was denied the liver transplant her doctor thought could save her life, her mother and father brought her fight to the doorsteps of CIGNA insurance. By her side was American SiCKO Donna Smith and the California Nurses Association. The media picked up on the story which quickly became a public relations nightmare for CIGNA because of the real nightmare the Sarkisyan family was living. With no other choice, CIGNA finally approved Nataline's liver transplant but it was too late. Nataline died two hours later.
Wendell Potter was a CIGNA executive at the time. He saw the Sarkisyan's struggle from the inside of the profit-making company and knew that CIGNA would do whatever possible to protect the bottom line. Previously, potter had attended the premiere of 'SiCKO' with a large group of other insurance insiders set with the task of debunking the movie. But, instead, Potter was swayed and later said, "When I saw the movie, Ill be honest: I thought it was a real good documentary. I knew from my own studies of other healthcare systems that it was an accurate portrayal of those systems and how they are able to provide universal coverage."
Nataline Sarkisyan's death was the last straw for Potter. He resigned from CIGNA, blew the whistle on the industry, and became an activist for health care reform.
Here he is face-to-face with Nataline's family for the first time.
Who are we? Why are we here? PHIMG (pronounced P-H-I-M-G) is a coalition of NYC-based activists working for REAL health care reform. We organized to shine a spotlight on the underlying cause of our health care crisis: private insurers - middlemen who needlessly add cost and complexity, ration care based on profit goals, impede the practice of medicine, and block real reform. To afford-ably solve the health care crisis we must eliminate PHIs by improving and expanding Medicare to cover everyone.
The best way to learn about PHIMG's history is to watch the videos we have produced of our past actions, which you can find below.
(TIP: Click on a video to start it, and then click again, the video will play in a larger size.)
