DEMOCRACY NOW!: Health Care Special: Why Are Uninsured Patients Paying The Highest Prices?; Are Debtor Prisons Returning To America?

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I listened to this broadcast yesterday. It really terrified me. This could so easily happen to me! Man, everybody's just a friggin predatory parasite, looking to bleed the weakest and most vulnerable! This is some evil, toxic crap!

TODAY'S SHOW: Wednesday, January 7
* State Secret: Why Are Uninsured Patients Paying The Highest Prices? *
Inequality in the U.S. medical billing system leaves the uninsured paying far more for medical care than those with insurance. We speak with a patient who was uninsured when she received an emergency appendectomy and was charged five times higher than what Medicaid would have paid and others including the Legal Aid Society's Elisabeth Benjamin author of the report, "State Secret" which finds New York City hospitals aren't informing patients about available state government charity funds.
Listen/Watch/Read
here

* Are Debtor Prisons Returning To America? *
Hospitals hound uninsured patients for bill payments and now rank among America's most aggressive debt-collectors using one of the harshest and least-known collections tactics of all: seeking the arrest of no-show debtors. We speak with Jim Bean who was jailed in Illinois in part because he failed to pay a hospital bill and we hear from the CFO of the hospital that sought his arrest as well as a member of a grass roots citizen action organization in Illinois.
Listen/Watch/Read
here

* Headlines, January 7 *
- Bush To Give Amnesty to Undocumented Workers
- Federal Court Upholds Texas Redistricting
- US to Release 500 Iraqi Prisoners
- 8 Children Among 17 Killed in Afghan Blast
- Syria & Turkey Oppose Autonomous Kurdish Iraq
- State Dept. To Hold Conference On USS Liberty Attack
Listen/Watch/Read
here