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A Murder Mystery: Who Killed Medicare Advantage?

29 December 2009 - 1:11pm | mary lynn cramer
by Mary Lynn Cramer

“It was a cold and snowy night in December 2008, when the insurance company Executive Officer sat alone in his brightly lit office suite. He himself was all a glow with warm fuzzy feelings as he composed a memo to his staff advising them of his planned absences from corporate headquarters over the next several months. None other than the President-elect of the United States had personally called and invited him to Washington DC to help design a new health care reform policy. Yes, he’d be spending a lot of time in his new office at the nation’s capitol—several days or weeks a month.

The Skinning of Seniors: Who Gives a Damn!

28 November 2009 - 6:16pm | mary lynn cramer
by Mary Lynn Cramer

The health reform endgame is over for low-income senior citizens, but the national hoax continues. Seniors in the state where I live don’t have to wait for the finale of “what is expected to be a bruising, full-scale health care debate after Thanksgiving” to find out how their health care costs and benefits will be impacted. (AP/Espo, 11/21/09) No, the low-income elderly in Massachusetts already got notices in the mail, weeks ago, from their Medicare Advantage insurance providers announcing big premium increases for 2010.

Death by Denial: Militarization of Mental Health

15 November 2009 - 9:42pm | mary lynn cramer
by Mary Lynn Cramer

“While investigators probe for a motive behind the mass shooting at the Fort Hood military base in Texas Thursday, in which an army psychiatrist is suspected of killing 13 people, military personnel at the base are in shock as the incident ‘brings the war home’… Tragically, Fort Hood has also born much of the brunt from its heavy involvement in both occupations. Fort Hood soldiers have accounted for more suicides than any other Army post since the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003.

“Off-Point:” Healthcare Overhaul Doublespeak

11 October 2009 - 12:05pm | mary lynn cramer
by Mary Lynn Cramer

The Great Orwellian Debate over healthcare reform blunders on. Radio talk shows like NPR’s “On Point” continue to present a narrow view of opinions on the subject, while trying to stir up excitement over so-called right-wing propaganda, and fabricated Democrat vs. Republican discord. I have several times attempted to call-in a comment to clarify the “doublespeak” going on with regard to the $500 billion cut in Medicare Advantage programs that the President and Congress agree is planned.

Low-Income Seniors On The Chopping Block: Obamacare Cost Cutting

25 September 2009 - 9:41pm | mary lynn cramer
by Mary Lynn Cramer

Even at this late hour it seems progressives do not understand the goal of Obamacare. They keep repeating the mantra (on every “liberal” talk show from Democracy Now to NPR’s On Point) that the cuts in Medicare will only be from the “wasteful” programs like Medicare Advantage.

As MA Slashes Health Insurance Coverage Doctors Offer Alternative: National Single Payer Program

24 June 2009 - 11:23am | RadioView
by Dave Goodman (I.B.I.S. Radio)

Somerville, MA - Saying that Americans already are paying more in taxes (and private insurance premiums) for medical care than any other country in the world but having worse “health outcomes” than citizens of other western industrialized nations, Dr. Rachel Nardin, President of the MA chapter of Physicians for a National Health Program, explained Monday why her organization thinks a “single payer, universal coverage” type plan must be adopted as soon as possible.

Why Has the Press Failed Us In Reporting on Health Care Reform? An Open Letter to Bill Keller, Executive Editor, New York Times

10 April 2009 - 5:21pm | bday
by Benjamin Day (Advocate)

Dear Bill Keller and Clark Hoyt – For the first time in the span of a generation, national health care reform is back on the horizon, and I’m writing to you to step back for a moment into the history of the Times’s reporting on health care reform. Last year I began a research project with two researchers from Harvard Medical School, Drs. David Himmelstein and Steffie Woolhandler, to look at the history of major state health reforms such as TennCare, the Oregon Health Plan, MinnesotaCare, and many others.

The Amoks of Lovelle Mixon, Michael McLendon, Tim Krestchmer, Robert Stewart, Kerby Trevelus, Devan Kalathat, and Jiverly Voong

4 April 2009 - 11:28pm | Julian Lieb
by Julian Lieb, M.D (Independent)

Kerby Trevelus decapitated one of his sisters, stabbed another to death, and injured a third. Robert Stewart slaughtered eight people in a nursing home, and wounded another three. In the days leading up to the massacre of four police officers, Lovelle Mixon told relatives that he felt depressed and angry, an uncle noticing that he was emotionally withdrawn. Michael McLendon killed five family members and five other people before shooting himself. In the days leading up to the massacre, he told a friend that he was depressed. Tim Kretschmer murdered fifteen people before shooting himself.

The Multi-Trillion Dollar Question: Whose Consumption Drives the Economy?

10 December 2008 - 11:52am | mary lynn cramer
by Mary Lynn Cramer

Having written several articles and letters debunking the “consumer-driven economy” myth, I recently swore off further attempts. I thought. Whenever another well-intentioned liberal describes our economic problems and solutions in terms “consumer demand,” I am drawn to trying once more to break through the economic brainwashing most of us have been subjected to since children.

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