Fran,

The story of this article is a bit stale by now and as with many supposed scandals or controversies there is much more to it than meets the eye.

The staged event was apparently intended to coincide with the GC Session in St Louis for maximum embarrassment value, but not terribly well timed (not to mention simply not scratching where it itched...) since the article from St Louis is dated more than a month and a half after the GC and its delegates left town. Sadly the poor Venezuelan family appear to have been used to further the self-serving agenda of an outfit that itself was no stranger to controversy and sticking it to the poor when it comes to covering the cost of health care.

Pay very careful attention to the last 4 paragraphs of the Washington Post story, particularly the names of the players in this unfortunate melodrama of opportunistic people exploiters. Notice that Forbes is described as the paid front man for the "insurance giant and GOP donor" J. Patrick Rooney. Hmmmm... that alone should make one a little bit suspicious, and that name does ring a bell or two...

Ah yes, here it is... An article published a mere 9 days later in the Tamp Tribune does indeed mention Mr. Rooney, and hardly as the hero of the downtrodden seeking relief from the high cost of medical care. As Paul Harvey would say, "And now, for the rest of the story... http://news.tbo.com/news/MGB4PBXV0DE.html .

Trust me, I am not here to defend the outrageous high cost of health care, but I am an even less enthusiastic defender of the slimy practices of the insurance industry, even legitimate insurance companies. But to stiff low income families by selling them health care "insurance" and refusing to actually pay for their health care is hardly what I would call legitimate insurance!! Let's face it, this Rooney fellow and his well compensated mouth piece certainly lack any serious credibility in this fight for the little guy!!! I think J. Patrick has some splainin' to do!

Tom

Staged? Well of course the family is going to go to anyone that might help when they are trying to save the life of their child. I know if it was my child I would.

I don't get what you are saying. Are you saying that it was just badly done PR, because it wasn't timed correctly?

This isn't about free healthcare. It's about doing the right thing.

True, you can't save everyone, but the standard for our church should be "What would Jesus have done?"

Our mission is not about putting the right PR spin on events that are unpleasant. The hospital was not so cash strapped that they could not have helped this family out. Let us never forget what we are here for.

I firmly believe that good ethics is good business. We need to admit our mistakes, and figure out how to make sure they don't happen again, not sweep them under the rug.

Oh, and I'd be remiss if I didn't post where I first found this story a few months ago.

http://www.wherethemoneygoes.com/

I'm not sure who funds the site, but the information is still startling since it references a lot of main stream press articles off site.

A search of the site as of today for "Adventist" links to this series of articles -

http://www.wherethemoneygoes.com/newSearch.php?SearchString=adventist&Submit=Search+WTMG

By the way, it's taken me a long time to get to the point where I'd say something about this kind of stuff in public. I can assure anyone reading this that my only "agenda" is to stimulate discussion so that we can try to fix the problems.

Edit: I did a Whois and some more searching. The above web site is funded by Rooney's foundation which is called "Fairness Foundation."

I still think that the information is thought provoking, and raises some very serious questions about this story and other issues.

Well now, see what happens when I get curious about a news item.

I checked out some links about Forbes. Did you know that there was a 60 Minutes program in the last few months that featured this story?

Here is the web site of the organization that the Adventist family turned to for help - http://www.consejohelp.org/

According to the press release from the organization after the 60 Minutes story ran dated March 31, 2006.

"In a response letter to the AHA, Michael Rosenbaum, producer of the 60 Minutes’ segment titled “Is the Price Right?” wrote, “Forbes says his work is on behalf of the uninsured, and is in no way connected with any agenda of any insurance company. All the evidence we’ve seen shows that is correct. And, even Forbes’ harshest critics have not provided any evidence that his work for the uninsured involves promoting, proselytizing or lobbying for any form of insurance.”