Discrimination and Murder by Spreadsheet
By PAM BERNS
The Tea Partiers are here to carry the message. They’re mad.
Despite 95 percent of Americans having their taxes reduced this year,
they’re mad about taxes. They’re mad about the health care bill,
they’re mad about the financial stimulus plan, and they’re mad about
immigrants. And some of them attend gatherings with racist signs.
This mob has supposedly erupted because of the Obama health reform
bill. But these mobs have attracted members of white separatist groups
as well. According to Bloomberg, “Tea Party supporters are likely to be
older, white and male.” Many claim to be Christian fundamentalists,
with 44 percent identifying themselves as “born-again.” Another poll by
Quinnipiac University found that 88 percent were white and that 77
percent said they voted for John McCain in the last election. A New
York Times/CBS poll in April of this year reported that 92 percent felt
that President Obama’s policies were moving the country toward
socialism.
Propaganda fueled by right-wing radio, TV and internet jargon has
accused Obama of supporting a “Nazi-like” health care system. Rush
Limbaugh threatened to seek his future medical care in Costa Rica,
which prompted Roger Ebert to urge readers to send Limbaugh a bon
voyage card.
It is amazing that a health care plan covering all children and the
eventual closing of the donut hole in the Medicare drug plan for
seniors would threaten so many. Don’t these radicals have children or
parents? Don’t they have heart attacks, cancer and diabetes, like the
rest of us? Are they all so economically well-heeled that they can
afford to go without health insurance? The protesters in the televised
crowds appear to be regular-looking white folks who seem to have plenty
of time to stand around outside “protesting” all day. Some of us work.
One of the most appalling spectacles in one of these crowds involved
a man who was sitting down on the ground holding a sign saying that he
had Parkinson’s disease. The 60-year-old man, Robert Letcher, a former
nuclear scientist with a doctorate from Cornell University, was
supporting the health care bill. Another man stood out from the crowd
and threw 2 dollars at Letcher, saying that he was starting a pot to
give the man a hand-out. The crowd jeered. Since the incident, the man
who threw the money at Letcher received so many emails about his
behavior, that he repented.
The discrimination towards the sick by this “tea party movement” is
morally repugnant. Remember the “rent-a-crowd,” bussed-in protesters of
the health care bill? Now that they have the ball rolling, this angry
mob has given a platform to discrimination. This is not a “tea party.”
The passion exhibited in these protests is not rational. We shouldn’t
recognize this mob mentality as a rational response to the issues. Do
these born-again fundamentalists have any compassion?
In another scene of health care reform, protesters gathered in
Washington, hurling racial slurs at Rep. John Lewis and Rep. Emanuel
Cleaver, both African-Americans. A protester spat on Rep. Lewis. The
crowds used the “N” word in their chants. Let’s not put a pretty face
on this racism.
I cannot believe in 2010 that we have come to this. That prominent
conservatives have not spoken out against these racist protests
forcefully is truly shocking. Are the politicians so hungry for votes
that they can ignore such atrocious antics?
As for the “socialized medicine,” the Obama health care bill did no
favors for those in the most high-risk pool in Illinois who will have
to continue to pay for their expensive policies in ICHIP until 2014.
In the past year, there has been a combined 31 percent leap in net
income of the five largest for-profit health insurance companies,
despite the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression. In
1993, the five leading health insurers used about 95 cents of every
premium dollar on health care. Today, according to Health Care for
America Now! (HCAN), they spend closer to 81 percent, adding a
difference of $25 billion in 2009.
The most outrageous thing I have heard of is about how one insurance
company owned by WellPoint Inc. had systematically dumped breast cancer
patients by implementing an algorithm to search its computer databases
for breast cancer cases and used the information to trigger fraud
investigations of the patients so that the insurers could search for
excuses to rescind their coverage, despite the patients having paid
their health insurance premiums for years. Health Access credits
Reuters with the discovery of this atrocity.
According to HCAN’s executive director, Ethan Rome, “WellPoint is
committing murder by spreadsheet and it has to stop now. This is a
matter of life and death, and executives and board members of WellPoint
need to be held to account to the fullest extent of the law.”
On May 8, Obama reported in his weekly radio address, “When we found
that an insurance company was systematically dropping the coverage of
women diagnosed with breast cancer, my administration called on them to
put an end to this practice immediately. Two weeks ago, the entire
insurance industry announced that it would comply with the new law
early, and stop the perverse practice of dropping people’s coverage
when they get sick.”
Incredibly, this year WellPoint gave a bonus of $13.1 million to CEO
Angela Braly, up 51 percent over last year. She denied singling out
breast cancer patients, but agreed to stop cancelling policies.
And that the Tea Partiers wanted to keep that kind of system defies
reason. If the free market would have created competitive health
insurance rates for all, we wouldn’t need government assistance to
bring health care to millions more. But for all the protests, reports
ABC News, this year private health care has cherry-picked the healthy
and wealthy, while 2.7 million people lost their coverage. Next year,
the Partiers may be among the unlucky.
Published: June 07, 2010
Issue: Summer 2010 Urban Living