See update #3 at the bottom of this post: after an emotional roller coaster of a day, Nataline Sarkisyan has passed away.
The fine, caring folks at CIGNA health insurance have made the warm-hearted decision to let a 17-year-old girl die because they don’t want to pay for a liver transplant. And they’re trying to justify […]

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In order to keep these roundups fresh as a spring daisy, I usually discard any links I’ve been keeping around that are more than a week old. But since this is OcPot’s first roundup in more than six weeks, I’m extending the freshness window slightly to include a few things that were just too good […]

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This week’s smash-hit viral video is a cheery little mash-up in which a Monty Python classic gets its peanut butter in the chocolate of the modern-day healthcare crisis.

 
… and here’s the handy action link.
If William Jennings Bryan were alive today, he might say something about not crucifying mankind upon a Cross of Blue.
… while we’re […]

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1,850 U.S. citizens were recently killed in an entirely preventable disaster.
It’s been a while since I’ve updated this record — 37 days, to be exact. On July 18 I started keeping count of the 50 U.S. citizens who die every day because they can’t afford health care, according to this statistic.
So in a little […]

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Scary stuff: There’s a lot of buzz and speculation that starting just after Labor Day, the Bush administration is going to be rolling out a major PR campaign to pave the way for war with Iran. See here and here for starters. Grand Moff Texan at DKos says the Bushies will be using the same […]

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So I’ve been slammed with work for the last week or so, and I haven’t had a chance to update this count in a full seven days.
During that time, about 350 more Americans have died because they couldn’t afford health care.
That brings the total count to approximately 700 people who have died just since I […]

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Here’s a good example of why I like this guy so much.
He gets it. And he lets you know that he gets it.
This is Edwards speaking at the Gnomedex Tech conference in 2006:

 
… and from Monday night’s debate:

 
Via this most excellent diary at Daily Kos.

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About 50 Americans have died since yesterday because they couldn’t afford health care.
That brings the total to 350 people who have died thanks to our profit-focused health care system just since I started keeping this count, six days ago.
If 350 US citizens had died in a plane crash this week, we’d be hearing about it […]

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About 300 Americans have died because they couldn’t afford health care since I started this count five days ago.
About 50 more will die today.
Since this is turning into a kind of daily witness, I suppose I should document my source for the statistic this is based on.
Michael Moore says in Sicko, and he […]

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Since I last updated this count, on Friday, about 100 more people have died in the United States because they couldn’t afford health care.
That makes about 250 Americans who were allowed to die because they couldn’t pay for treatment, just since I started this count four days ago.
About 50 more will die today.

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First up, Stephen interviews Michael Moore … all the way from Brazil!

 
Next, Jon Stewart’s take on anti-gay Surgeon General nominee James Holsinger, in which he manages to reveal some surprising truths inherent in plumbing fixtures. (I previously posted Colbert’s take on Holsinger’s fixture fixation, but Stewart gets some good mileage out of it, too.)

 
Finally, […]

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I didn’t get a chance to weigh in on the whole Moore vs. Gupta dustup while it was happening (much to the relief of the scale!), but here’s a little post-mortem wrap-up.
First off, some links in case you missed any or all of it (all video links except the second one):

Round One: Michael Moore […]

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Since I started this count two days ago, about 150 people have died here in the US because they couldn’t afford health care.
That’s enough people to fill, what, three or four CTA buses?
About 50 more will die today.

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