Help us out by throwing some cash in the bucket:
Click here to read Hightower's personal message about
REAL CHANGE
(not small change)
Hightower Lowdown
"The less a statesman amounts to, the more he loves the flag." -- Kin Hubbard
December's Lowdown
Corporate elites and their small-minded political servants are creating the Incredibly Shrinking America
"We the people of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America." What a paragraph! This sparse, 52-word opening of our Constitution did not merely launch a fledgling nation--but a bold experiment in democratic idealism.
[read more]
Stay in the Loop
Sign up for email alerts, from breaking news to weekly commentary:
In This Issue
but it's not guys in black helicopters, it's GLOBAL CORPORATIONS
There's a plan for one world government
Also in this issue:
Subscriber Features
Manage your account by logging in. Don't have an account? Get the Lowdown in the mail every month -- for the unbelievable, ridiculous, low, low price of $15 per year! Save a tree and read it online for just $10 per year!
Dig Deeper
Find more content in these topics: Corporate greed, Health insurance, Healthcare
Search
The General Store
Have a gander at the whole store here...
Home | Contact | RSS | Privacy policy | Copyright Public Intelligence, Inc., all rights reserved 1999-2011
Aetna's hoggishness
Our March Hog features the biggest porker in American corporatized medicine: Aetna US Healthcare, a leader in killing the 'Patient's Bill of Rights" in last year's Congress.
Mr. Joseph Plocica could tell you about the need for this bill of rights ... except he's dead. Even though he was medically unstable, he was released from a Fort Worth psychiatric ward against the pleas of his own psychiatrist who said he needed more hospital time. Right after his release, Mr. Plocica drank a half gallon of anti-freeze, killing himself.
He was released into that dark night by a faraway doctor who'd never seen him. This doctor worked for Aetna, Mr. Plocica's HMO, and he decreed that the company would not pay for another night in the hospital. An Aetna lawyer said HMOs don't decide when patients go home, just whether their stay is paid for. Try explaining that distinction to Mr. Plocica's family.
Aetna lobbyists are back in Washington this year, trying once again to kill the Patient's Bill of Rights. To hog be Aetna and support patents' rights, contact Families USA: (202) 628-3030 or www.familiesusa.org