Speaker 1: It's nice with Dan Ray. I'm Delia Boston Video.
Speaker 2: Thank you very much, Kyle. As we will continue to
Speaker 2: talk about the Stewart Hospital crisis here in Massachusetts. I mean,
Speaker 2: we are at a very critical breaking point at this
Speaker 2: point and this should get I think, some resolution. None
Speaker 2: of the politicians seemed to be doing much. The governor
Speaker 2: was the attorney general. But this is a situation that
Speaker 2: has did not begin on her watch. And Senator Warren,
Speaker 2: who prides herself on always being head of the curve
Speaker 2: of everything, is obviously behind the eight ball in this one.
Speaker 2: She had an ample opportunity over the last twelve years
Speaker 2: or first two terms in the Senate to see what
Speaker 2: was going on and to have addressed it not only
Speaker 2: here in Massachusetts but in Washington. Yeah, this is this
Speaker 2: is a this is We are not Mississippi, we are
Speaker 2: not Alabama. Here we talk about Massachusetts as being the
Speaker 2: great medical center of the universe, where people come here
Speaker 2: from all over the world. But but what does that
Speaker 2: say for the average resident of Massachusetts. It's one thing
Speaker 2: to have mass General available for the elites of the world,
Speaker 2: whether you're a movie star, a singer like Adele or
Speaker 2: or the King of some emirate in the Middle East.
Speaker 2: You get you can get to mass General. But who
Speaker 2: gets to mass General or who can get to a
Speaker 2: hospital if if all the local hospitals are closing up.
Speaker 2: Mass General kind of accommodated for everybody. Let's go to
Speaker 2: the call, Let's go to the phones. They got Tom
Speaker 2: in West Virginia. Tom, he didn't want to show change
Speaker 2: your last hour. You go right ahead, thanks for waiting.
Speaker 2: Through the news.
Speaker 3: I can just hear Elizabeth Warren now having a press
Speaker 3: conference winger and saying, we've caught to change health care
Speaker 3: in the state of Massachusetts.
Speaker 2: Uh, you know, she's I thought that with Obamacare, this
Speaker 2: was all going to be taken care of. Was it
Speaker 2: wasn't Obamacare going to fix everything? I guess not.
Speaker 3: Remember when Obama had his first State of the Union
Speaker 3: address and it was a senator from one of the
Speaker 3: Carolinas who Obama said in his State of the Union
Speaker 3: in address that illegal immigrants will not get medical care.
Speaker 3: Joe Wilson was his name, and he.
Speaker 2: Goes he was a congressman from South Carolina.
Speaker 3: Yep, yes, thank you, okay, And he yelled out YOULI,
Speaker 3: which was very disrespectful.
Speaker 4: I might add but guess what.
Speaker 3: Guess who was getting medical care in the wonderful state
Speaker 3: of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts free of charge at the
Speaker 3: rate payers.
Speaker 2: Okay, just you know, Tom, you know as well as
Speaker 2: I do. There's nothing is free. You may not pay
Speaker 2: for it, but someone else is paying for it in
Speaker 2: this case, no tax.
Speaker 3: Bakers payers, the taxpayers and the people who have health
Speaker 3: insurance are paying for these people that I'm sure are
Speaker 3: all wonderful people. Okay, but anyway, I'm sad to see
Speaker 3: what's going on in the state that you know, I
Speaker 3: look at Massachusetts and if I go back to nineteen
Speaker 3: eighty nine, the state had six million people population a
Speaker 3: twelve billion dollar state budget back then. Now I look
Speaker 3: at it, it is I'm going to say, seven point
Speaker 3: two million people with a state budget of probably fifty
Speaker 3: five billion, fifty eight billion, you know, the.
Speaker 2: Eight the budget, it was just out right, So what's
Speaker 2: three billion amongst friends?
Speaker 4: Right?
Speaker 3: Right? And you know something, you can't criticize Maura Heally
Speaker 3: because obviously she leaves an alternative lifestyle and if.
Speaker 2: That's got nothing to do with her, Tom, that that's
Speaker 2: the lifestyle, has nothing to do with it. She was
Speaker 2: attorney general for eight years before she became governor. However,
Speaker 2: this was a plank of Elizabeth Warren. She was going
Speaker 2: after all of these corporations, these greedy corporations. Well, it's
Speaker 2: one thing to be a greedy corporation if you're producing
Speaker 2: a product that people are buying it. If you're the
Speaker 2: corporate head of the company that produces hula hoops and
Speaker 2: people will spend one hundred and fifty dollars on hula hoops,
Speaker 2: that's between you and those people. The government has no
Speaker 2: involvement in. But when you talk about hospital care and
Speaker 2: the closing of hospitals, that's her number one job. And
Speaker 2: guess what, she was asleep at the switch talking about
Speaker 2: Elizabeth Warren. Who's up for reelection this noment?
Speaker 3: Well, right, and so wasn't Marquee, and so wasn't maur Heally.
Speaker 3: And you know, Uh, it's sad because there's a lot
Speaker 3: of people. I own a house in Brockton. I have
Speaker 3: neighbors that have gone to the Brockton City Hospital, which
Speaker 3: is now started up again after a fire, unfortunately, but
Speaker 3: my mom died at the other hospital in Brockton. It
Speaker 3: begins begins with an f it'll come to me in
Speaker 3: a minute. But I just look at the state and
Speaker 3: it's like, is anything going right in Massachusetts?
Speaker 4: Well again, it just seems like for me.
Speaker 2: For me, the irony is that people come here from
Speaker 2: all over the world. I believe that Adele, the great
Speaker 2: singer from Britain, who is having trouble with her with
Speaker 2: her vocal courts, vocal courts, she was able to come here,
Speaker 2: thank God, you know, the the the Emmy or the
Speaker 2: of all of these, you know Middle Eastern countries who
Speaker 2: can afford to fly in here on their jumbo jets.
Speaker 2: Which is great, that's that's a wonderful service. But when
Speaker 2: you now are closing local hospitals, so people like that
Speaker 2: call O Lesta or Rob from Dunstable who apparently had
Speaker 2: some sort of one hour accident and cut his foot
Speaker 2: and apparently has lost a couple of toes. If that
Speaker 2: hospital had not been that available, he would have had
Speaker 2: significant problems worse than what he's dealing with. The Next
Speaker 2: time you listen, you listen to Elizabeth Warren make a
Speaker 2: speech about how that she's going to stay on top
Speaker 2: of this and make sure that there's no financial abuses
Speaker 2: and that the little guy who's being crushed or whatever
Speaker 2: she or being hammered. Wasn't that her phrase when she
Speaker 2: first you know, if you're being hammered, you know, well,
Speaker 2: these people aren't being hammered, these people are being ignored.
Speaker 4: Well.
Speaker 3: And she she's the one who uh did the phony.
Speaker 3: I'm going to try and relate with the working people
Speaker 3: of Let me grab a beer and then she grabs
Speaker 3: a mechelode light.
Speaker 4: Are you're kidding me?
Speaker 3: If you're gonna pretend you're from Boston, you don't grab
Speaker 3: a michealode light? All right, you grab a Samuel Adam.
Speaker 3: Oh stop it, all right? Bending people like.
Speaker 2: No ads for seam Adams for me would be a
Speaker 2: course like, oh I love Sham Adams. All right, Thanks,
Speaker 2: thanks Tom, appreciate you call. I have a great night.
Speaker 2: Good night. We'll keep rolling here. Six one seven, two,
Speaker 2: five four to ten thirty six one seven, nine three
Speaker 2: one ten thirty. This is a crisis. This is a crisis.
Speaker 2: It's a crisis that developed, that didn't develop overnight. Where
Speaker 2: were our political leaders? And I'm focusing on Senator Elizabeth
Speaker 2: Warren because one of her uh plat planks of her
Speaker 2: platform when she was running I'm going to represent the
Speaker 2: people who are getting hammered. Yeah, people are being hammered. Well,
Speaker 2: these people aren't being hammered, they're basically being ignored. Give
Speaker 2: us call six one seven ninety or six one seven two,
Speaker 2: five four ten thirty.
Speaker 4: Uh.
Speaker 2: I'm late to the party in this story. I should
Speaker 2: have been doing this a couple of months ago. But
Speaker 2: now as I thought about it, I said, and this
Speaker 2: is not a look. If you have if your medical
Speaker 2: care is all in line, and your doctor is UH
Speaker 2: is available to you, and you don't have to worry
Speaker 2: about getting out a doctor, you're fine. But the people
Speaker 2: who are in a situation of desperation tonight, and who
Speaker 2: will be in a real situation situation of desperation as
Speaker 2: these hospitals close, that's who I want to hear from tonight.
Speaker 2: Join the conversation back on Night's Side right after this.
Speaker 1: Hold on a sec, I'm gonna get me apear now
Speaker 1: bent to Dan Ray live from the window World to
Speaker 1: Night Side Studios on WBZ News Radio.
Speaker 2: Get back to the phones. Here we got Bill and Lowell. Bill,
Speaker 2: youan next on Nightside. Welcome? How are you sir?
Speaker 4: Hi?
Speaker 5: Dan?
Speaker 2: Hi? Bill, Let's hear your take on this. I can
Speaker 2: hear you find you want to you on a speakerphone.
Speaker 6: Well, you know what, I have a speakerphone on my
Speaker 6: cell phone, but I attached a different speakerphone for it.
Speaker 2: Oh that's wonderful. Okay, Bill, I can hear you. Go
Speaker 2: right ahead.
Speaker 6: Okay, So I'm just gonna hear me. You know what,
Speaker 6: I think. It starts from the top where they our
Speaker 6: government allowed all these illegals to come into our country,
Speaker 6: and they are draining the system, even even the hospitals,
Speaker 6: because they get free health care. We don't.
Speaker 2: Well that's true too. I mean, you know that's a factor. Okay,
Speaker 2: that is clearly a factor, no question about that. Okay.
Speaker 2: But but also did no one see this coming? Where
Speaker 2: was Elizabeth Warren on this? I mean, wasn't she the
Speaker 2: person who's going to protect protect the little guy from
Speaker 2: getting hammered? Remember those campaign you know, vote for Elizabeth
Speaker 2: and everything. All the time Obamacare was supping to solve this.
Speaker 2: Remember again, we're not Mississippi, We're not Massachusetts. We are
Speaker 2: We're not Missippi, We're not element We're in Massachusetts. We
Speaker 2: are the center of the universe when it comes to
Speaker 2: medical care. But it's all going to go away.
Speaker 6: And you know what, Dan, I start where I am
Speaker 6: living right now. I started off five years ago, paying
Speaker 6: seventeen sixty five a month. Now I'm up to twenty
Speaker 6: three fifteen. How am I supposed to keep up with that?
Speaker 3: You know, it's not easy, but you live.
Speaker 2: In a one party state. The people, the people who
Speaker 2: are who are controlling the switch, they're asleep at the switch,
Speaker 2: and now we have this crisis. They don't anticipate problems.
Speaker 2: They react to problems that they've ignored for years.
Speaker 6: I've never liked Elizabeth Warren.
Speaker 2: Never find me one person I really likes her. I've
Speaker 2: never I mean, she's not a likable person. But her
Speaker 2: stick was, oh I will protect you. I'll protect you
Speaker 2: from from the from the the greedy corporate chieftains. Well
Speaker 2: this was a pretty.
Speaker 6: Damn She's protecting herself, she's protecting her pockets.
Speaker 2: You know, remember in November, my friend, Oh I.
Speaker 6: Will, I will Because it's like, you know, I don't
Speaker 6: understand how people vote for these people that are going
Speaker 6: to do us harm.
Speaker 2: Well, I think what happens is they get a good
Speaker 2: ad agency she comes across. You know, I'm for the
Speaker 2: little guy who's been hammered I'm for the little guy
Speaker 2: who's been hammered. That was what all she said, and
Speaker 2: people she must be good, and now how good she
Speaker 2: really is?
Speaker 6: Yeah, yeah, it's all a bunch of life. Did I
Speaker 6: say you enough?
Speaker 2: I think you said quite enough. And he did a
Speaker 2: good job. Bill. I appreciate it. Thank you much.
Speaker 3: You're welcome by great.
Speaker 2: Have a great night. Okay, folks, I'm not asking to
Speaker 2: say anything. You can say what you want to say.
Speaker 2: This is simply providing you an opportunity. Next up, Kathy
Speaker 2: is in Lunenburg. Kathy, welcome back. How are you tonight?
Speaker 7: Good Dan. I'm calling specifically about out here in central
Speaker 7: mass which is not that far from Boston. We are
Speaker 7: less than an hour away. But yet, when the delegation
Speaker 7: went and had a press conference in Dorchester by Carney,
Speaker 7: I believe Elizabeth Warren was there, Ed Markey was there,
Speaker 7: Michelle wou was there. Governor Healy was there with her
Speaker 7: big words. The following day there was a press conference
Speaker 7: at Airt Town Hall. Elizabeth Warren sent an intern, a
Speaker 7: young intern, not one of the others, came out to
Speaker 7: ay Or town Hall. That is an a bottom disgrace.
Speaker 7: It's mind boggling to me that you know out here
Speaker 7: where it will now take more than thirty minutes for
Speaker 7: some people to get to a hospital, is being totally
Speaker 7: totally ignored and disregarded. It's absolutely shameful. What is going on. Well,
Speaker 7: that's against the beauty of the area of Massachusetts is
Speaker 7: ignored by the lawmakers.
Speaker 2: Well, that's that's the beauty of what we're doing here
Speaker 2: on Nightside.
Speaker 7: Okay, I know, and I thank you for that.
Speaker 2: No, no, no, no, that's my job. And I apologized earlier
Speaker 2: and I meant it honestly. Okay, I should go out
Speaker 2: just two weeks ago, but I was confused by it,
Speaker 2: and I've read up on it a little bit today,
Speaker 2: thought about it during the time when I was off,
Speaker 2: and I said, I got to jump on this story
Speaker 2: because there's people out there who are hurting.
Speaker 4: Right.
Speaker 2: I don't know what the solution is. I don't pretend
Speaker 2: to know what the solution is, but I can tell
Speaker 2: you that the political class here in Massachusetts is not
Speaker 2: providing any leadership or solution on this Nice words press
Speaker 2: releases press releases from Stewart that says, we're concerned about
Speaker 2: the patients and we're doing everything we can how much
Speaker 2: money is Stuart spending on their PR agents. And then
Speaker 2: you have the politicians who have their their PR agents
Speaker 2: who tell everybody bad.
Speaker 7: They're all sad. Two things, two important points I wanted
Speaker 7: to make for any of the listeners. There is a
Speaker 7: hearing on Thursday. The Department of Public Health has scheduled
Speaker 7: the public hearing at Devons on the Nashoba closing. That's
Speaker 7: this Thursday to fifteenth at six pm at Devon's Community
Speaker 7: Center when Andrew's Parkway on Devons and beyond that there's
Speaker 7: going to be a virtual hearing I guess on Monday,
Speaker 7: August nineteenth at six pm. So if someone can't make
Speaker 7: the hearing on the fifteenth, then they feel strongly there
Speaker 7: is going to be a virtual hearing thereafter. So you know,
Speaker 7: when there are signs popping up all over the region,
Speaker 7: I'll tell you there's a group of people it's called Savenshoba.
Speaker 7: What is it called again, Yeah, Nashoba Lives. And they're
Speaker 7: on Facebook and there are a great bunch of people
Speaker 7: that work for Nashoba and they're putting signs everywhere trying
Speaker 7: to get people educated with what's going on. But it's
Speaker 7: it's really going to have a severe impact on this region.
Speaker 7: And I just you know it's going to be life
Speaker 7: and death, or I'll tell you this.
Speaker 2: Here's my Probre's problem. All the politicians now they can
Speaker 2: hold all the news conferences they want. The horse has
Speaker 2: left the la. Okay, they were sleeping the switch. And
Speaker 2: I hold Elizabeth Warren number one, number one responsible for
Speaker 2: this because this was her pitch when she was when
Speaker 2: she was running for the US Center in twenty twelve.
Speaker 2: The little guy's being hammered, and I'm here to protect
Speaker 2: the little guy. No, she's not right, She's proven it.
Speaker 8: Thank god.
Speaker 7: We have choices in November, John Deaton, Bobby Antonellis and
Speaker 7: Ian Kane.
Speaker 2: Well whatever, whatever you know, she's up for reelection. People
Speaker 2: need to send to a message. It's as simple as
Speaker 2: that for anybody. I'm not here at a campaign against anybody.
Speaker 2: But when when someone doesn't produce, when someone promises and
Speaker 2: they over promise it under deliver, it would be time
Speaker 2: for change in my.
Speaker 4: Opinion, Agree, agree, agree, All right.
Speaker 2: Thanks Kathy. Great to hear you hanging there. Okay, I
Speaker 2: thought about you today when I decided to do this topic,
Speaker 2: because I knew you were concerned about it.
Speaker 7: Thanks, thank you, good night.
Speaker 2: We'll take a quick break. Coming right back on Nightside.
Speaker 2: One line at six one, seven, two, five, four to
Speaker 2: ten thirty. One line at six one, seven, nine three
Speaker 2: one ten thirty. I may cut this off at eleven
Speaker 2: o'clock tonight. I want to hear from you. Let's light
Speaker 2: these phone lines up. Coming back on Nightside.
Speaker 1: You're on Nightside with Dan Ray onn Youbzy, Boston's news radio.
Speaker 2: I'm going to go next to Michelle in Burlington who
Speaker 2: has been working or has worked at Michell But Michelle,
Speaker 2: welcome to Nightside.
Speaker 5: How are you, hi, Dan, thank you for taking my call.
Speaker 5: I'm good, Thank.
Speaker 2: You, You're welcome. Go right ahead. Tell us what you know.
Speaker 1: So.
Speaker 5: I've been a nurse at Misheubar. I currently still work
Speaker 5: there for twenty years. I love my job. I love
Speaker 5: that community hospital. We serve seventeen communities, between fifteen and
Speaker 5: seventeen communities, probably about one hundred and twenty one hundred
Speaker 5: and twenty five thousand people. The location if you look
Speaker 5: at an up where we're located. The communities that we
Speaker 5: serve from Ashby townshend Peparl Groton westward Lunenberg, obviously, Air Groton, Dunstable, Well,
Speaker 5: go all over, Shirley, Havard, Lancaster. I can just keep going.
Speaker 5: And the most important thing is this closure will absolutely
Speaker 5: positively cripple our EMS system. So there's a lot of
Speaker 5: elderly in these towns. There's I keep thinking of this
Speaker 5: one particular place in Townsend, like on Dudley Road, and
Speaker 5: there's like old old people housing, and there's some in
Speaker 5: Pepperrell in the summer air and surely, but anyway, I
Speaker 5: think of those folks way out there in towns, and
Speaker 5: how it's it's you know, a good twenty five minutes
Speaker 5: to get in the show, and how how when you
Speaker 5: are in a medical emergency, time is of the essence,
Speaker 5: and patients would come to the show. But and you know,
Speaker 5: if we don't have the means to care for you,
Speaker 5: we will, we will transfer you out. We have a
Speaker 5: helicopter pad. I could tell you stories and stories and
Speaker 5: stories of beautiful life saving things that have happened. Doctors
Speaker 5: across the hall wheeling their patient to the emergency room
Speaker 5: having massive mis and we get them in the helicopter
Speaker 5: and send them to where they need to be to
Speaker 5: get the care that they need. Just again, time is
Speaker 5: of the essence. And and you know when somebody falls
Speaker 5: and breaks a hip and they have to drive from
Speaker 5: Townsend in a bumpy ambulance to down route too to
Speaker 5: get to Conquered, to get to Emerson Hospital, Oh my goodness.
Speaker 5: And then what are we doing to those local emergency rooms?
Speaker 5: You're talking Leminster and Emerson. And if you're on Westford,
Speaker 5: you might be going to Lowell General. And those places
Speaker 5: are already packed and they cannot handle. They're already feeling
Speaker 5: the suffering of our closure. And when I'm not even
Speaker 5: closed yet.
Speaker 2: Well you can hear Michelle, you can hear voice.
Speaker 5: I am so just straw. You know what, Dan, It's
Speaker 5: I love my job. I love taking care of patients.
Speaker 5: I love what I do. But Stewart has absolutely positively
Speaker 5: crippled us. We were telling management for years that our
Speaker 5: beds were broken, equipment was breaking, we weren't getting replaced.
Speaker 5: It was almost like a strategic starvation of our economic
Speaker 5: foundations at Nashoba. So when when the thought of you
Speaker 5: ask any nurse in any bost Any hospital doesn't have
Speaker 5: to be a Boston the hospital, the how important it
Speaker 5: is to have an ICU, we have six icy beds.
Speaker 5: Dan we have twenty Jerry psyche beds. Do you know
Speaker 5: how hard it is to place mental health patients, let
Speaker 5: alone geriatric mental health? And we're closing, like, why isn't
Speaker 5: the Department of Mental Health like up in arms? Where
Speaker 5: where is everybody? I get politics, I get it, and
Speaker 5: I'm so disgusted I can't even It blows my mind
Speaker 5: when we're talking about this.
Speaker 2: There's absolutely no politics here. I mean, this is this is,
Speaker 2: this is nothing nothing to do with Republicans or Democrats, liberals, conservatives,
Speaker 2: all of us, whatever our political pedigree is, whatever a
Speaker 2: political philosophy is, all of us at some point need professional,
Speaker 2: high level medical care in a convenient way. I mean,
Speaker 2: people should not have to drive into Boston and try
Speaker 2: to find a parking space near my mass General or
Speaker 2: in a parking garaguate masth General for something that could
Speaker 2: be handled by a community hospital. I hold Elizabeth Warren
Speaker 2: uh primarily responsible for this. It's as simple as that.
Speaker 2: I really see it that way.
Speaker 5: So it's definitely there's definitely yes. People people of higher
Speaker 5: care ever knew what was going on, what Steward did.
Speaker 5: If you did some investigating and read a little bit.
Speaker 5: And this is what I wish somebody would do, dive
Speaker 5: deep and look at what Steward has done. It's almost
Speaker 5: like I keep saying that we were us Ann Kearney
Speaker 5: or the sacrificial lambs in this in this whole economic break.
Speaker 5: Why I don't you know? What you know blows my
Speaker 5: mind is is when when we as nurses spoke to media,
Speaker 5: they were out there when we first you know, announced
Speaker 5: the closure, and of course they don't they don't play
Speaker 5: what you actually say. But anyway, but some of the
Speaker 5: numbers that they came across, they said that we only
Speaker 5: had eleven eleven patients at that particular time. We had
Speaker 5: like thirty seven patients in our hospital.
Speaker 3: We were thriving, we were busy.
Speaker 5: I don't know why the numbers are skewed reported wrong.
Speaker 5: We do have DPH coming in weekly, checking checking, honest,
Speaker 5: do you have what you need? You do you have
Speaker 5: enough staff members? Do you have you know? Because we
Speaker 5: had canceled procedures because we didn't have Stewart didn't pay
Speaker 5: the bills. So there are certain vendors that couldn't get
Speaker 5: certain equipment we couldn't get. I mean, it was just
Speaker 5: it was Honestly, it was just awful.
Speaker 2: Thanks so much, Michelle. I don't know if you've called
Speaker 2: Michelle before, but the passion in your voice is inspiring.
Speaker 2: And I'm not going to forget this call. I promise you, okay,
Speaker 2: and we'll stay on this. We're trying to get some
Speaker 2: experts on this later on this week. There's a guy
Speaker 2: I'm gonna.
Speaker 5: I'm gonna get my fellow nurses calling you.
Speaker 2: Okay, all right, Thanks so much, Michelle, appreciate.
Speaker 5: Thank you for bringing us up.
Speaker 4: I can't thank you.
Speaker 2: Let me get one in here before the break. If
Speaker 2: I can't, going to go to Marianne and Bridgewater. Hey, Marianne,
Speaker 2: you're next on night Side.
Speaker 8: Hey Dan, thanks for taking my call. I just ask
Speaker 8: you if let me put you on speaker for a second,
Speaker 8: because I want to read. This is part of the problem,
Speaker 8: the funding that's quiet like. So, for instance, we have
Speaker 8: private health insurance, and I noticed on some of the
Speaker 8: statements that we have a search charge. So you know,
Speaker 8: chemo is expensive, so you know, sixteen hundred dollars a
Speaker 8: visit surcharge goes to the Commonwealth of mass So I
Speaker 8: caught up and I said, what is this surcharge, and
Speaker 8: the insurance company explained to me that the Commonwealth of
Speaker 8: Massachusetts charges or makes the insurance companies pay a percentage
Speaker 8: one point thirty five percent of whatever the cost it
Speaker 8: is for the treatment my son is getting. So I
Speaker 8: started looking into this, thinking after the Steward and everything
Speaker 8: going on with Stewarts, do it had was a health
Speaker 8: insurance company too, called Steward Care or something, and I
Speaker 8: started googling, wondering did they have to pay the co too?
Speaker 8: And sure enough, anybody that purchased through the connector are
Speaker 8: one of those Obama plans and they did not have
Speaker 8: mass help. So anyone that was enrolled in like the
Speaker 8: Steward Care insurance, Steward was responsible to send this money
Speaker 8: to the state and that money is what's funding the
Speaker 8: emergency care the immigrants that aren't legal.
Speaker 2: Well, I don't know if I know this, that to
Speaker 2: take care of the housing of the newcomers, the migrants,
Speaker 2: whatever you want to call them, it's costing Massachusetts one
Speaker 2: billion dollars a year, and it will cost us another
Speaker 2: billion dollars a year from now now. Again, separate and
Speaker 2: apart from the crisis with Stewart, I mean that's money
Speaker 2: that we really don't have, and it gets cut from
Speaker 2: somewhere else. I have never been in a position thank
Speaker 2: you that you find your family self your family and
Speaker 2: right now, Okay, you said you have a son who's
Speaker 2: undergoing chemotherapy.
Speaker 8: Yeah, this is bad because he actually purchased that Steward
Speaker 8: health plan during COVID because he had gotten not laid off,
Speaker 8: but it was like a cheaper insurance than getting it
Speaker 8: through his work. And they didn't even have the doctors
Speaker 8: to treat him. They misdiagnosed him, and when he was
Speaker 8: finally diagnosed in November, it was stage four be cancer.
Speaker 8: So it's an uphill battle. Oh, forty forty years old.
Speaker 8: Forty years old, so I retired from nursing to take
Speaker 8: care of my son.
Speaker 2: To me favor, please say hello to him and tell
Speaker 2: him that there's a lot of people listening to this program.
Speaker 2: I'm sure are going to offer prayer for him tonight. Okay.
Speaker 8: Yeah, it's really tough. But I never even knew as
Speaker 8: a nurse. I never knew our private insurances. And I
Speaker 8: guess it became effective either November or October of November
Speaker 8: of twenty twenty three, that this searchage is now funding
Speaker 8: this emergency pool, Okay, and it just makes me angry,
Speaker 8: you know.
Speaker 3: I mean, I'm sorry, I know it sounds terrible.
Speaker 8: No, but to think of every TEAMO appointment, Dan, and
Speaker 8: then I'm going to just say this and hang up.
Speaker 8: John's share of it is twenty three thousand dollars and
Speaker 8: we've only done we'reing on a second cycle now because
Speaker 8: he does need a stem cell transplant if there's any
Speaker 8: chance of Slovako. But I look at this and I
Speaker 8: say to myself, my gosh, how does anyone afford this anymore?
Speaker 8: And that's when I started comparing the bills to that insurance,
Speaker 8: and then I found that search tage. Honestly, Dan, I
Speaker 8: flipped my shit a little bit.
Speaker 3: Sorry, I swore, but.
Speaker 8: I did in my mind because I'm thinking of myself. Yes, sure,
Speaker 8: searchadging my insurance to fund a program for people that
Speaker 8: don't even they're not citizens. I'm sorry, Dan, I get
Speaker 8: angry because.
Speaker 2: Our priorities are totally reversed as they should be. We
Speaker 2: should be taking care of people in Massachusetts who have
Speaker 2: been here, lived here for a long time.
Speaker 8: Okay, did you know, Dan, I just want to say this.
Speaker 8: John worked up until the day before his first demo
Speaker 8: treatment on December nineteenth, he stayed working full time.
Speaker 3: Well again, he's.
Speaker 2: Been a contributor. And this is the sort of thing
Speaker 2: that in you know, you hear the politicians use the
Speaker 2: phrase the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. There was no commonwealth for
Speaker 2: your son. Okay, no, no, they'll talk about, they'll talk
Speaker 2: about for the newcomers. They now are members of our family,
Speaker 2: our commonwealth. Well, I think that's you know, pardon me, you.
Speaker 8: Know, the commonwealth to my house. That's how I feel,
Speaker 8: you know, like, come on, let's shift. Do you want
Speaker 8: to share? Okay, look at here's my seventy thousand dollars
Speaker 8: of bills.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm so glad you called them, so glad you
Speaker 2: got it in. But I'm past my break here and my.
Speaker 8: Thank you for letting event.
Speaker 2: Well do me a favorite event. But remember in November.
Speaker 8: Okay, oh absolutely right now.
Speaker 2: Thanks Mary. Okay, we're gonna take quick break. Come right
Speaker 2: back on Night's side. We will switch topics at eleven
Speaker 2: unless you want to keep talking about this. Six one seven, two,
Speaker 2: four ten thirty six one seven, nine three ten thirty
Speaker 2: A couple of lines there, coming back on nightside.
Speaker 1: Now back to Dan Ray Mine from the Window World
Speaker 1: night Side Studios on WBZ News Radio.
Speaker 2: All right, let's keep rolling here. We're gonna go to
Speaker 2: Dave in San Antonio, Texas. Dave, you were next on Nightside.
Speaker 2: Let's talk about the Stuart Hospital crisis here in Massachusetts.
Speaker 2: Go ahead, Dave.
Speaker 4: I could just give you a relative story to that day, okay,
Speaker 4: And that's up in Michigan. I had to go thirty
Speaker 4: miles as the doctor where I lived, and it was
Speaker 4: horrible treatment. And the governor, the welfare people wanted to
Speaker 4: take my dear wife and put her in one of
Speaker 4: them homes and kill her because it would have happened
Speaker 4: to her, because it's the same thing happened to Michigan
Speaker 4: that happened in New York with that COVID. And it
Speaker 4: was right during that period. And I called my daughter
Speaker 4: up and I said, you buy me a house down
Speaker 4: there if you want your mom alive. And so she immediately, Boy,
Speaker 4: how do.
Speaker 2: You let me ask you this day? I'm trying to
Speaker 2: understand and and and please pardon, more.
Speaker 4: Had gone through Dave.
Speaker 2: Dave, I'm trying to ask you a question, So just
Speaker 2: please listen to me. Let me help you here, Okay, okay,
Speaker 2: I want to understand how do you relate your story,
Speaker 2: which is a sad story, uh, to what's going on
Speaker 2: here in Massachusetts right now. We're closing hospitals in Massachusetts
Speaker 2: in areas where where people need the help. What what?
Speaker 4: That's what you get from letting those Democrats take control
Speaker 4: of that state and one party system.
Speaker 2: That's a two party system in Michigan, by the way, Yeah,
Speaker 2: well you've had Republican governors. You have five Republican Congress
Speaker 2: governors state than Massachusetts.
Speaker 4: Dave, I mean, oh no, it's not no, it's not this.
Speaker 2: Let me ask you this. Do you know how many
Speaker 2: We have two senators, both Democrats. We have nine members
Speaker 2: of Congress, they're all Democrats. Okay, we have six constitutional offices,
Speaker 2: they're all Democrats. The Speaker of our House, the President
Speaker 2: of our Senate are Democrats. Our legislature is about eighty
Speaker 2: to eighty five percent Democrat. Find me a state that
Speaker 2: is more overwhelming Democrat than that, other than maybe Rhode Island, and.
Speaker 4: I can always tell you that Michigan. I can only
Speaker 4: tell you Michigan as a governor that was just a
Speaker 4: little bit away from replacing Biden. So they have.
Speaker 2: Members of Congress out there who are Republicans.
Speaker 4: Let me finish what on comparison I'm trying to make.
Speaker 2: I came down here to help you, Dave, go ahead.
Speaker 4: I came down there are in Texas, in a very
Speaker 4: conservative state, and my wife received treatment that was a
Speaker 4: hundred times better that she received up in Michigan. And
Speaker 4: she died in my arms, not in the bag on
Speaker 4: nursing hope, and the nurses would come to the home
Speaker 4: and treat her and bade her and there would be
Speaker 4: no sticking her in some home with a bunch of
Speaker 4: people that everybody forgot about. That was one instance. And
Speaker 4: the second instance is my daughter. She's a disabled VET.
Speaker 4: During Trump's administration, while Donald Trump was president, aiden the
Speaker 4: vy at va like he was doing, she was getting
Speaker 4: transfusions for her a plastic anemia.
Speaker 2: What we're talking about. By the way, I just ran
Speaker 2: just for your own benefit. I'm delegation. I don't want
Speaker 2: to confuse you with facts, Dave. But the Michigan congressional
Speaker 2: delegation has thirteen members, six Republicans, seven Democrats. That's all
Speaker 2: I'm saying.
Speaker 4: I understand that, I understand it's.
Speaker 2: A much more ba stage than I'm glad that you're
Speaker 2: I'm glad that your wife has received better treatment in Texas,
Speaker 2: but we're talking about Massachusetts and I got to get
Speaker 2: back to it. I'm sorry, Dave. I appreciate your call
Speaker 2: as always. Thank you. Mike is in Lunenburg. Bring me
Speaker 2: back to reality, please, Mike, it's Mike there. No, okay,
Speaker 2: why don't you see where Mike is gone? Uh. If
Speaker 2: Mike is there, I'll take him. If not, we'll move
Speaker 2: on to someone else. Six one, seven, two, five, four,
Speaker 2: ten thirty, triple eight nine nine ten thirty. Let me
Speaker 2: go to Mike ready, Robert. No, okay, Mike, I don't
Speaker 2: know where you were, but I hope you then now
Speaker 2: go right ahead, Mike.
Speaker 4: Uh.
Speaker 9: The Facebook page is Save No So Save Noshoba, Save Lives,
Speaker 9: and my wife works in the lab over there, so
Speaker 9: we're not looking forward to the of the hospital and
Speaker 9: all of my medical care is there.
Speaker 2: I wouldn't think anybody would be looking forward to the
Speaker 2: closure of a hospital in their community. I totally agree
Speaker 2: with you on that, that's for sure. Who do you blame?
Speaker 2: Do you blame anyone who's are just living in Massachusetts?
Speaker 9: Maura Healy was the Attorney Generalney General here, and she
Speaker 9: was aware of the nonprofit hospital being being taken over
Speaker 9: by a for profit equity firm that's owned by or
Speaker 9: Ralph de Latour and Steward in the whole.
Speaker 2: Let me ask you this. I look at Elizabeth Warren
Speaker 2: and I think that that she's been around long enough.
Speaker 2: And she came into office saying she's going to look
Speaker 2: out for the little little guy. Do you hold her responsible?
Speaker 9: And no, not to the same extent as I personally
Speaker 9: hold Mari.
Speaker 2: Okay, So let me ask you this, mar Hee. He's
Speaker 2: not in the battle at this November Elizabeth Warren, and
Speaker 2: you're gonna vote for Warren.
Speaker 9: The jury's out, jury's out.
Speaker 2: Well, I'll tell you something. Uh, you better get the
Speaker 2: jury coming back in. Thanks, Mike, trust me on that.
Speaker 2: If you if you want to have the same result,
Speaker 2: keep voting the same way. Let me keep rolling. You're
Speaker 2: gonna go to Steven in Wellesley, Steven next on night side,
Speaker 2: go right ahead. Maybe Steven's not save it. Are you there? Welcome?
Speaker 9: No, it's it's Caesar. Can you hear me?
Speaker 2: Your first name is Peter. No, Caesar Caesar, Okay, Hail Caesar. Okay,
Speaker 2: I got Caes, I got Stephen, but we'll make it seizure.
Speaker 2: What's your thought on this state, Caesar?
Speaker 10: Go right ahead, all right, So gonna be a little
Speaker 10: facetious here, all about money. Doesn't matter what you have,
Speaker 10: you haven't got it, you're not getting you're not getting
Speaker 10: to take.
Speaker 2: Really, well, there's a lot of people who have come
Speaker 2: into the come all at the Massachusetts penniless, Caesar, penniless.
Speaker 2: I don't know if you're aware of the migrant situation
Speaker 2: we're here in have in Massachusetts. Those those folks.
Speaker 10: Are penniless, but I made sure they were taken care
Speaker 10: of because it's a political move.
Speaker 2: Well, but what I'm saying is there, I don't think
Speaker 2: it's a question of money. It's a question of whether
Speaker 2: or not you're in a favorite class or not. How
Speaker 2: do you feel about Senator Elizabeth Warren, who was going
Speaker 2: to protect everybody from getting hammered?
Speaker 9: Well, back on what was the first time, what was
Speaker 9: that you said before Warren? You got something with Warren?
Speaker 2: What if you think she's done a good job representing
Speaker 2: you in Washington?
Speaker 9: I don't know.
Speaker 10: I also don't know.
Speaker 2: Open up your eyes and read a little bit about
Speaker 2: it and I think you'll come to uh an obvious conclusion. Caesar,
Speaker 2: A nice call, Thank you very much, appreciate it. All right,
Speaker 2: we're done for this hour. A couple of different calling well,
Speaker 2: we sort of the quality of the calls went down
Speaker 2: as the hour went on, which always is troubling, but
Speaker 2: that's okay. When we get back, we're going to talk
Speaker 2: about stealing candidates, presidential candidates, stealing ideas from other presidential candidates.
Speaker 2: Back on Nightside after this