Readers of our review of Michael Moore’s film Sicko (issue 158) will be aware of the scams used by private health insurance firms in the USA to avoid paying out. Here’s one consequence. Californian teenager Nataline Sarkisyan died after Cigna HealthCare refused to pay for a liver transplant. They said her healthcare plan did "not cover experimental, investigational and unproven services." So she died. Her mother thinks the company should face murder or manslaughter charges. She is right.
Members of Prospect union in the Science Museum group have been on strike over wages, with minimum hourly rates falling significantly below the real living wage whilst directors’ salaries have grown substantially. Socialist Appeal pledges solidarity!
Are the terms ‘socialism’ and ‘communism’ interchangeable? Thomas Soud from the Warwick Marxists sets out to answer this question.
Running simultaneously and arguably as crucial as the election for
Unite’s General Secretary itself is the BA dispute and a proposal to
‘settle’ it. 12 months ago British Airways cabin crew on an 80% turn
out, voted by a brilliant 92% to take strike action to defend their hard
won terms and conditions. The dispute started as a result of the
imposition and erosion of ‘Terms and Conditions’ but has been diverted
by British Airways and is now being defined by staff travel and the
disciplinary process. But with scores of cabin crew suspended and a
dozen sacked, the proposed ‘deal’ is already unravelling.