Obamacare closes hospitals for veterans & minorities; media & OK Cong. delegation remain silent

It’s an anti-capitalist, anti-consumer, anti-military health care remedy advanced by an exceedingly unpopular president which will cost Oklahoma 500 jobs and ruin a nearly $100 million investment.  It’s red meat for Oklahoma’s congressional delegation, right?  So far the answer is ‘no.’

We know the national media is sold-out for anything Obama, but the Oklahoma media too?  It seems there are simply no words to describe how pathetic and worthless the Oklahoma press corps really has become, or is there a financial reason why the silence this time?

So what could possibly unite the state's left-leaning media with it's usually conservative congressional delegation?
 
Here’s the fuss: the public remains captivated by the emerging details of the Obama/Pelosi/Reid (OPP) healthcare overhaul, in particular the stupefying costs and the various provisions that would be detrimental to the greatest healthcare system in the world, albeit the most expensive.

But the national media (no surprise here) and the Oklahoma Main Stream Media (OMSM) remain stuck in dumb, even as the details slowly emerge as to perhaps the most outrageous aspect of the OPP reform effort: a slap in the face to veterans and military families by denying them quality healthcare with a sneaky and arguably sleazy provision that effectively flushes a $98 million southeast Oklahoma City heart hospital facility and 500 new jobs down the toilet.

But the outrage is not just in Oklahoma. We have learned that over a hundred top-quality facilities across the United States may be shuttered because they are victims of a cynical turf war between so-called “non-profit” and facilities owned in part or in whole by physicians, yet the Oklahoma media seems to be struck deaf, dumb and blind.

Many of these specialty healthcare facilities were designed and located in areas primarily for veterans and their families in mind.  And how are these under-construction facilities to be financially buried?  By denying the facility federal healthcare reimbursement because physicians have a piece of the investment.  No, we’re not kidding.

The media has never understood that this battle because it’s far too esoteric for them to comprehend, and secondly, it’s a bogus issue advocated by those who buy LOTS of advertising in the media: the so-called 'non-profits,' which are actually multi-billion dollar monopolies that hate the competition from the more aggressive, more advanced and consumer friendly physician-owned facilities.  Physician-owned facilities are typically newer, safer and patients flock to these innovative and far better hospitals.

As a last gasp notion, the billionaire behemoths concocted allegations of conflicts of interest regarding referrals, an intellectually bankrupt notion, in an effort to thwart the will of healthcare consumers tired of the old dangerous and bureaucratic model.  Secondly, they stuffed the pockets of politicians and asked that the politicians help them in their battle against progress, and thirdly, as previously mentioned, they began to pour untold millions of dollars in buying advertising on radio, TV and in newspapers, which one could argue effectively ‘blinds’ the media.  Campaign donations and advertising dollars: the elixir that can bind lefty journalists and conservative politicians.

But some gutsy politicians don’t care.  Nearly two weeks ago, Oklahoma County Commissioners, led by the seemingly tireless Commissioner Brian Maughan and fellow courageous Commissioners Ray Vaughan and Willa Johnson, unanimously passed a resolution decrying the provision in the OPP effort that would shut down the Oklahoma Heart Hospital south campus.
 
State Senators Jim Reynolds and Harry Coates have attempted to focus attention on the problem, and 5th District Candidate Kevin Calvey issued this today, but the Oklahoma delegation has been surprisingly quiet.  The ‘Your Vote Counts’ duo of Representatives Randy Terrill and Richard Morrissette have been very vocal against this issue, but why are the vast majority of local politicians, the press and so-called business groups in Oklahoma allowing millions of Oklahoma dollars and 500 jobs to be flushed by liberals from Washington with barely a whimper?  Why is a topic that Red State press and lawmakers should run to embrace, (anti-veteran actions of the administration), being ignored?

We wonder that, too, and we’ll be examining that in upcoming posts.

Related:

Video: Rep. Richard Morrissette Goes Off!