 So this story that we're going to talk about is very very rage-inducing it made me very angry after reading it and It's not necessarily something that's shocking, but still when you hear about the specifics it really is Unthinkable now. I think that the left has done a really great job at persuasively arguing that health care in America should not be commodified But we don't nearly talk enough about how hospitals as well should not be businesses hospitals Should prioritize patients and not profits, but in this story It really reiterates how important it is to more often include hospitals in this discussion about the decommodification of health care Because they do a lot of terrible things that lead to people being harmed, especially When times are tough During a global pandemic that is so bad. It only happened usually once a century So a CNN's Casey Tullin reports as the coronavirus spiked in Missouri last fall a wave of cases hit a nursing home in the state's rural Heartland Robin bull a part-time nurse remembered an ambulance coming and going constantly on one especially scary morning Rushing residents to mobrily regional medical center the local hospital But even as bull was helping send patients to mobrily regional The hospital was in the process of suing her and at least one other former employee at the nursing home They were two of more than 600 former patients The hospital has sued over medical bills during the coronavirus pandemic according to a CNN analysis of court records bull's experience is hardly unique Hospitals owned by community health systems incorporated one of America's largest hospital chains have filed at least 19,000 lawsuits against their patients over allegedly unpaid medical bills since March of 2020 Even as other hospitals around the country have moved to curtail similar lawsuits during the coronavirus pandemic a CNN investigation found The company's 84 hospitals which are concentrated in the south and stretch from Alaska to Key West, Florida Have taken their patients to court for as little as two hundred one dollars and as much as 162 thousand dollars. They say litigation is a last resort CNN's review of court filings across 16 states the company operates in Found that most of the patients sued by CHS like bull Didn't hire a lawyer or fight the lawsuits and judges often ruled in the company's favor by default in some states Defend its debts piled on with attorneys fees and interest Elsewhere the hospital chains subsidiaries quickly moved to garnish defend its paychecks after a judgment CHS in 2020 enjoyed its most profitable year in at least a decade Even as it was suing patients during the pandemic the company made 511 million dollars in that income last year a big swing after four straight years of annual losses That's strong financial result led to the company's top executives earning millions of dollars worth of bonuses according to documents It has filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission one reason for the success CHS has been buoyed by taxpayer support It received 705 million in pandemic related aid from the federal governments cares act and other state and local programs in 2020 not including additional government loans. It will have to pay back according to its 2021 annual report to shareholders Okay, let's step back and review all of the details here They are suing thousands and thousands of patients During a pandemic in a year when they actually saw increases to their revenue after they took taxpayer money Could they get any more brazen? I don't think they can get any more brazen if they tried and The reason why they usually win by default as the article referenced is because normal working Americans They can't afford to fight this legally having a lawyer Who's good to represent you it costs money, you know for paperwork court documents There are legal fees associated with that so a lot of people they just they can't fight it so what happens The court ends up Rewarding the hospital who's suing them who actually has the resources to stick on these individuals It's a power imbalance and it's in just oh unjust and this is an injustice that has been happening forever in America It's just that even as bad as these businesses called hospitals can be sometimes At least some of them during a pandemic said, okay, maybe we won't Harass people too much who can't afford medical bills But not this hospital chain I It's just shocking like reading the details. It's almost unbelievable But it's totally predictable in our late-stage capitalist society But at the same time the details are still very shocking like I never as much as this is normalized in America I never feel as if oh Sure, that's just the thing that happens in America. That's just the way it is. It's still Reginducing because they're so shameless Hospitals like this need to be nationalized immediately Because they very clearly are showing you that they don't care about their patients. They care about profits They're like a mafia. They treat you you owe them for the rest of your life You're in debt to them and in the UK. It isn't this way There are some privately run hospitals in the UK But a lot of hospitals are actually publicly owned so that means that doctors and nurses They're actually government employees now again, not all hospitals in the UK But we don't even really have that as an option in the US I mean the closest thing is the VA medical system for veterans But we need to at least see an increase in publicly owned hospitals and Bernie Sanders is on the right track In pushing for more community-run health centers, but I mean with the way the system is currently we're going to continue to see this happening Now what would alleviate some of the pain that people are feeling is if we had a single-payer system So rather than sending all of these gigantic astronomical bills to the individuals It just gets sent to the one insurance company representing all of America the United States government It's why we need Medicare for all it's why we have to nationalize a good portion of hospitals in the United States We can start with this chain So, you know for me, I always talk about Medicare for all But I think that's the start and then you build on Medicare for all after that You slowly but surely turn the United States health care system into a more national health care system that we see in the UK Which is loved by British people Just ask them So I mean only that there I think that the details of the story speak for itself How shameless this this company is It's not surprising but still the details are shocking because during a pandemic, you know when other Money-making companies when other hospitals are choosing to give patients a break Not this chain. They're going full speed ahead sewing thousands of patients It's just it's unthinkable during a year when they actually saw their revenue increase It's just it's awful. There's nothing left to say. It's just awful that this is happening