In this week's episode: "For Profit Health Insurance: An Abusive Relationship" Vanessa Beck testifies about an abusive relationship with her health insurance companies that she has struggled with for most of her life.

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News You Can Use

• The New York Times is reporting that pharma-predator Eli Lilly has agreed to pay $62 million to settle claims it improperly marketed Zyprexa, its top-selling drug, to patients who did not have schizophrenia or bipolar disorder, and did not need it. 

   

• The Associated Press reported that California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger vetoed a bill that would have cracked down on health insurance companies that retroactively cancel policies of people who file claims.  The measure would have established an independent review process of each case and required that policies be rescinded only if insurers prove consumers willfully misrepresented their pre-existing conditions on a policy application.

   

• The U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to review a case that would undermine consumer protections and determine whether "injured people can bring claims against allegedly defective drugs and other products to state courts. In an appeal to the Supreme Court, pharma-predator Wyeth argued that FDA approval of medication labels precludes lawsuits in state courts filed over alleged problems with the labels.

   

What is the solution to this type of chronic criminal behavior?  We need to get a restraining order filed against the abusive for profit health and pharmaceutical companies, and move to a Single Payer system.

Action You Can Take

If you want the health care system to change then join us. This week your assignment is to write a letter to the editor of your local newspaper and call into your local talk radio show and say "no more bailouts for corporations and wall street" It's time for single payer health insurance on main street!