This project needs support, in my humble estimation.
Note: forwarded message attached.
Note: forwarded message attached.
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--- Begin Message ---Dear Friends of The NewStandard, Despite our irregular publishing schedule, we at The NewStandard have remained very busy of late. While our efforts still revolve largely around fundraising for a full launch, we have found some time to do the type of work this project is all about: gathering important information no one else is covering and getting it out to the largest audience possible.Toward that end, we've been touring with Dahr Jamail, our Baghdad correspondent who returns to Iraq on April 1st with the generous help of NewStandard readers. He has given a dozen presentations in his home state of Alaska and around the Northeast. We definitely had success in terms of our primary goals for the tour -- educating hundreds of people and raising money for Dahr's return trip. Audiences were highly enthusiastic everywhere we went, giving Dahr the morale boost needed to fuel his continued journalism. We still hope to raise at least another $3000 for Dahr's invaluable work in Iraq, and there's still time for you to contribute. We want to make sure Dahr has the resources he needs to carry on his on-the-ground investigations of US military forces, corporations and NGOs while in Iraq. See http://newstandardnews.net/dahr In addition, TNS editor Simone Baribeau put together the first of what we hope will be a weekly (and eventually daily) feature called "Corporate Digest," The NewStandard's antidote to your daily newspaper's "Business" section. Instead of gearing our corporate news toward investors, we operate from the perspective of workers and consumers. Where the Wall Street Journal sees something as "a potential advantage for early investors," we look to see what combination of the environment, labor or consumers is being affected. The entire Corporate Digest for March 22-28 is up at http://newstandardnews.net/content/?action=show_item&itemid=167 -- but we thought we'd entice you with one short report below, about HMOs attacking patient protection laws in Texas (coming soon to a state near you?). Other topics covered in this issue include: + Airlines Ask for Union Salary Cuts While Executive Salaries Remain High + Power Companies Continue Delivering Mercury to Water Supplies + Pharmaceutical Industry May Further Consolidate + Albertsons buys US Sainsbury Among Labor/Consumer Concerns Aetna and Cigna May Gain Legal Right to Prevent Patient Suits by Simone Baribeau Patients risk losing their right to sue HMOs when their failure to pay for "ordinary care" leads to injury or death, as US Supreme Court justices signal they may side with Aetna Inc. and Cigna Corp. in overturning a Texas law which protects patients against HMO negligence, reports Bloomberg. Should this legislation pass, HMOs will bear no legal responsibility for patients who become ill, miscarry or die due to the HMOâs refusal to adequately pay for medicine, hospital stays, or medical tests. At issue, according to Bloomberg, is whether the HMO's refusal to pay for treatment is tantamount to making a medical judgment. Only if they are making a medical judgment, the Supreme Court justices argue, would they be open to a suit. "They're not managing care. Theyâre giving out money," Justice Antonin Scalia said during arguments in Washington, reports Bloomberg. He argued that patients could receive care by paying out of pocket. In 2001, President Bush opposed a bill which would have given patients a broad right to sue their health insurers, arguing that it would drive up health care costs, according to Bloomberg. Several studies have suggested, however, that the rising cost of health care is not driven by malpractice suits. A 2003 study by Weiss Ratings, an independent financial ratings organization, demonstrated that states that put legal caps on non-economic malpractice damages had a higher increase in malpractice premiums than states that did not cap damages. Instead, according to consumer advocacy groups, increasing administrative costs are largely to blame for rising insurance premiums. A 2003 report by Public Citizen, a non-partisan consumer advocacy organization, cites figures from the New England Journal of Medicine, which show that in 1999, 31.0 percent of US health spending was on administrative costs, while, by comparison, administrative costs in Canada amounted to 16.7 percent of health spending. The report argues that the difference is due to inefficiencies in US's "current fragmented and duplicative payment structure" which are not present in Canada's single payer system. According to the Center for Responsive Politics, Aetna donated $299,000 to Republican campaigns in 2000, and Cigna donated $263,374. =============================== Please forward this message to anyone you believe may be interested. This message is not spam -- it was sent to an opt-in list. If you wish to remove your address from our mailing list, go to http://newstandardnews.net/promo2/?action=elist_unsubscribe&[EMAIL PROTECTED]
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