The Errington Thompson Show 11-21-09
Prizes? Errington has some seasonal surprises in this week’s show, including upcoming giveaways for listeners and for those who check out the blog. Along with some Amazon.com gift cards and gift certificates to Malaprop’s, there will be some lucky new owners of a great new biography of Louis Armstrong, Pops: A Life of Louis Armstrong by Terry Teachout. Free stuff… what a great way to get started thinking about the holidays, and Errington (unlike your local grocery store) has the grace to wait until after Thanksgiving!
Getting down to business, this show runs the progressive gamut from corporate responsibility (or lack thereof) to the formerly tax-exempt “religious” sanctuary, C Street in Washington, to H1N1 and a guy with fifteen live lizards strapped to his body trying to smuggle them into the U.S. on a plane. Errington and Aaron touch on Big Pharmacy’s price increase this year, up approximately nine percent, and pose the question: is this coincidence, right before probable health care reform, jacking up their prices to increase profit margins? Don’t these guys owe the American public some kind of restraint and responsibility? How about the women in the news lately shut down and shut up by US contractor, KBR after their repugnant practices safeguarding policies sanctioning gang rape in their Iraq facility?
Of course healthcare is all over this episode, looming large as it does is all of our minds right now, hefty bills going back and forth in Congress, progressives and conservatives duking it out over ways it can be improved and wrestling some really big numbers. As a trauma surgeon, of course Errington brings a unique point of view to the debate. What if we focused on promoting healthy habits and tried to move the focus back to the general practitioner and away from Urgent Care and the ER? “Jerry” calls in, wondering about proposed penalties for people who won’t voluntarily get health insurance under some of the suggested healthcare legislation. At least in jail you’d get health insurance… a bed, and three squares!
Now this is progressive radio!
