Originally Posted by roachboy

i don't think that's correct either, rahl. the relation betwee hospital bureaucracies that interface with insurance companies and the companies is really a matter of administrative cultures, which compartmentalize (separate cause and effect, for example)...so formally everyone might say that patients are not being refused treatment, while in reality the consequence of the administrative culture (and forms) prevents patients from getting treatment. does anyone say "fuck off, you..."? no: is the effect any different from that? materially no. formally of course yes, because, well, no-one said "fuck off" to anyone.

what constitutes the breaking of such a law, really? an explicit action undertaken by particular agents. an entire administrative apparatus that has the same effect even as the administrators can tell themselves it doesn't---is that a breaking of the law? depends on the politics of the situation, doesn't it? if you have advocacy groups, for example, that can break through the layer on layer of heavily funded corporate pr that passes for information, maybe. but they have to break through it, and then redefine the terms of debate.

as it turns out, that's happening anyway, but with a different adversary for these corporate interests to deal with.

it's an interesting battle from that viewpoint.
then you get to how it's being fought out, and it goes back to being depressing as hell again.