Small Wonder Bush Wants To Keep Health Care Private - Carlyle Group Takeover Nursing Home Chain...

[bridgit]

Carlyle Group Takeover of Major Nursing Home Chain Could Worsen Care for Tens of Thousands of Nursing Home Residents Nationwide

Largest Healthcare Workers Union Launches National Effort To Urge Carlyle To Put Care Above Profits in Manor Care Buyout

WASHINGTON, DC – With growing concern that the Carlyle Group’s focus on its own profits may be coming at a high cost to seniors, taxpayers, and workers, the nation’s largest healthcare workers union today launched a new nationwide effort calling on Carlyle to put patient care above CEO profits in its takeover of nursing home chain HCR Manor Care.

An estimated two hundred people rallied today outside the Washington DC headquarters of the Carlyle Group. The crowd, which included Manor Care workers and members and leaders of SEIU (Service Employees International Union) from half a dozen states, called on the Carlyle Group, as part of the Manor Care deal, to:
1. Ensure that its nursing homes are in compliance with federal minimum resident care regulations at all times.
2. Ensure that its nursing homes are staffed at levels recommended by the Federal Government.
3. Disclose the impact of its Manor Care buyout to the nursing home residents, workers and taxpayers in each state.
4. Structure its buyout so that Manor Care staff has a role in the reorganization and benefit from its outcome.
5. Create a Quality Care Fund and a new advisory committee comprised of Manor Care staff, resident advocacy groups and other stakeholders to improve patient care in all Manor Care homes.

“I know Paul Ormond and the Carlyle guys will take care of themselves in this deal, but who’s going to take care of Manor Care residents and staff?” said Julie Benjamin, a Geriatric Nursing Assistant for 20 years at the Heartland Health Care Center, a Manor Care facility in Hyattsville, Md. “We already don’t have enough bodies to care for all the residents. I am worried about this buyout.”

http://www.behindthebuyouts.org/media-center/2007/9/19/carlyle-group-takeover-of-major-nursing-home-chain-could-wor.html

[liberalmuse]

1. That is scary.

The Carlyle group also bought out VNU, which is basically Nielsen Media, the company that measures all our nation's tv and music ratings. We're going to have a huge monopoly on our hands. If the same company that profits from war is in charge of our multi-media ratings system, I get nervous. And the weird thing is, since the buyout there seems to be a lot of former GE employees entering the upper echelons of Nielsen. I believe this is a conflict-of-interest, since GE owns NBC AND builds bombs. Makes you think.

If Carlyle is profiting from our nursing home system, that just makes me sick. Who wants these bastards in charge of grandma and grandpa?

[bridgit]

3. they never seem less than several moves down the game board...

last week we couldn't get that 1st baby boomer chick off the radio as she signed her SS papers to great fanfare and info that 10's of millions of baby boomer's will be doing likewise/joining her over these next couple decades and BAM!

now we find this buyout which has been in the works i am sure for some time, though as seems clear now...some people are all about positioning in the future

[bobthedrummer]

5. It's a culture of death behind these "policies", analogous to the enabling acts of the Nazis imo n/t

[bridgit]

8. a culture of death...

:(

[Lars39]

15. That's very disturbing.

I'm beginning to think things are too far gone to recover from. :(

[bobthedrummer]

2. John Ellis Bush was "appointed" to the Board of Tenet Health Care in April

after vacating the Florida Governor's mansion, and bringing new "health care policies" to the citizens of Florida for years.

Jeb is on Board at Tenet
http://www.tenethealth.com/TenetHealth/OurCompany/John+Ellis+Bush.htm

Tenet Shareholder Committee website (Watchdog group)
http://www.tenetshareholdercommittee.org/index.php

Wisconsin was the pioneer state for these "new" policies and programs, fronted by Tommy Thompson and his eugenics gang.

[bridgit]

6. thanks for the links, bob, would seem clearly bigger than a bread basket...

[jwirr]

4. Yeah, poppy wants to run nursing homes just like prisons! We

do have some private nursing homes here but they are regulated by the state. The state actually contracts with them to care for patients. Much of the first line services in Minnesota are privately owned or non-profit but in order to get paid they have to follow government regulations. The state also sets the prices paid.

As my daughter lives in a privately owned foster home and attends a non-profit day achievement center I know that this is not all bad. I think it is a matter of the state taking responsibility for the services they oversee. If the oversight is done properly then the services are good. The state here must first license the organization to provide services and then inspect them regularly - 1 time a year for each patient - to see that they are providing the services expected.

[bridgit]

7. i'm certain there are proper ways to manage health care i just have little faith...

in g.w. bush or his handlers, and no-bid crony donor & fan base to find them

[UTUSN]

9. Reminder whenever Carlyle is mentioned: Jimmy CARTER's staffer is a co-founder

Yes, CARTER had a virtual nest of vipers at his breast: Tweety, Pat CADDELL, and this dude, David RUBENSTEIN. But this dude canned Shrub, so that's a good thing!!1

*******QUOTE*******

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article3994.htm

.... In a column posted yesterday on Salon.com, Joe Conason writes: "Preferring to avoid public scrutiny for obvious reasons, executives at the Carlyle Group usually say nothing about their firm's connections with the Bush dynasty. But last April 23, Carlyle managing director David Rubenstein spoke quite frankly about the comfy sinecure he provided to George W. Bush more than a decade ago -- and how useless Bush turned out to be. Whether he knew it or not, Rubenstein's remarks to the Los Angeles County Employees Retirement Association were recorded."

Rubenstein said, "We put (Bush) on the board and (he) spent three years. Came to all the meetings. Told a lot of jokes. Not that many clean ones. And after a while I kind of said to him, after about three years - you know, I'm not sure this is really for you. Maybe you should do something else. Because I don't think you're adding that much value to the board. You don't know that much about the company.

Rubenstein continued: "He said, 'Well, I think I'm getting out of this business anyway. And I don't really like it that much. So I'm probably going to resign from the board.' And I said, thanks - didn't think I'd ever see him again. His name is George W. Bush. He became President of the United States. So you know if you said to me, name 25 million people who would maybe be President of the United States, he wouldn't have been in that category. So you never know. Anyway, I haven't been invited to the White House for any things." ....

********UNQUOTE*******

[bridgit]

10. check, they say America had some good ideas in the beginning too...

[UTUSN]

11. My post wasn't an endorsement. n/t

[bridgit]

12. very well...

[Amonester]

13. K&R

And when "they" won't vote for Dennis Kucinich, perhaps that's what they'll get...

[Stinky The Clown]

14. The worker's union has been running radio commercials about this ......

.... begging listeners to call Carlyle CEO (they give his number) and ask that he fund better care, not line his own pockets.

I'm not sure how effective that will be. I suspect it won't.

[SoCalDem]

16. This is just the natural progression of Carnivorous Capitalism

Watch for them to buy up mortuaries & funeral homes..(Bushie already got his feet wet with the funeral parlor biddness in Texas)

The rich are always there to "help us" get rid of the undearable burden of holding our money..

[The Backlash Cometh]

17. Soylent Green is people!