Emergency Protest to Save DC General and Free DC

Monday, April 30, 1 pm

One Judiciary Square

441 4^th Street NW

On Monday, April 30, the Financial Control Board, the unelected bureaucracy imposed by Congress, will meet to overturn the unanimous will of the DC Council and act against the people of DC by approving the contract for privatizing DC General Hospital.

GATHER outside One Judiciary Square, in the park across from 441 4^th Street NW, at 1:00 pm on Monday, April 30. The Control Board will meet at 2:00 in room 1030, and they may require some “control” by the people.

STOP the plan by the Financial Control Board, which takes orders from Congress and the White House and gives orders to Mayor Williams, to dismantle and privatize DC’s public health care institution.

Forwarded by the DC Statehood Green Party

http://www.dcstatehoodgreen.org

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“The DC General Land Grab”

Letter to the Washington City Paper

Sent Thursday, April 26, 2001

To the Editor,

Loose Lips (April 20, 2001) http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/archives/lips/2001/lips0420.html believes the public debate over DC General Hospital takes place among DC pols vying for the lead in “the District’s most pernicious game: Who is black, or liberal, enough?” That might be true—claims of “authenticity” are time-honored ways to conceal agenda—but I’m still waiting for a reporter of LL’s caliber to investigate a more interesting motivation behind the Mayor’s scheme (on orders from the Financial Control Board) to privatize DC General.

The Mayor’s scheme is a land grab. Here’s why: For the past few years, Federal City Council, DC’s elite business circle, has promoted taxpayer-funded theme park development in DC, with its members winning major contracts. Prominent members include Abe Pollin, for whose MCI Arena DC Council imposed a surtax on local businesses; and Terence Golden of Marriott, major lobbyist for the new convention center. Richard Levy, president of the Levy Group and a Federal City Council member, has greased the wheels for such projects as the appointed chair of the Redevelopment Land Agency. The Control Board has shown special favor for Federal City Council members, awarding them at least 24 contracts over the past few years, many of them noncompetitive.

DC Chartered Health Plan, which without competitive bidding (thanks, perhaps, to $ thousands contributed to Mayor Williams’ pet causes) won the DC General privatization plan’s contract to administer Medicaid to 65,000 of DC’s 90,000-plus uninsured, also enjoys connections to the Federal City Council, through member Robert L. Bowles Jr., former President & CEO of DC Chartered. The professional advisor list of DC Agenda, a Federal City Council spin-off, includes Ralph Bazilio, chief operating officer of Thompson, Cobb, Bazilio & Associates—the accounting firm whose CEO is Jeffrey Thompson, owner of DC Chartered.

The Mayor and Federal City Council are now preparing a joint Baltimore-D.C. bid for the 2012 Olympics, featuring construction of numerous taxpayer-funded sports and other facilities, beginning with a ballpark

on Massachusetts Avenue NW, on which there’s been minimal public discussion. Part of the bid is the National Capital Planning Commission plan for extensive sports facilities on the site of “RFK Stadium and adjacent institutional buildings,” including—surprise! -- DC General. See http://www.wbrc2012.com and http://www.dcwatch.com/issues/pbc-ncpc.htm The surrounding area will have to be cleared for

accommodations, parking, etc., obliterating an entire neighborhood.

It’s unlikely DC and Baltimore will win the Olympics bid, but that’s besides the point. This is a textbook scheme to transfer public services and resources to private ownership and replace public accountability

and the benefits of common ownership with a cash cow for corporate cronies.

HMOs that administer Medicaid and Medicare have increasingly reduced benefits and eliminated coverage for poor, old, and other unprofitable “high-risk” people. It’s only a matter of time before either Mayor Williams himself or DC Chartered announce the fall of the hatchet. The solution to LL’s demand that “Low-income residents should be able to choose from a variety of health-care providers beyond just DC

General” would be a publicly owned single-payer program covering every DC resident, regardless of ability to pay, age, or prior medical condition, in which public and private hospitals and health professionals compete for our services. Neither the Mayor nor Council, whose alternate plan for DC General would use privatization to keep it open, have the vision to consider such a plan.

Scott McLarty

Spokesperson for the DC Statehood Green Party

Adams Morgan