During the second presidential debate last year, audience member Norma-Jean Laurent posed a tough question for Democratic challenger John Kerry. Laurent noted that Kerry had bemoaned the rising cost of health care for Americans. So how, she wanted to know, could he reconcile this campaign plank with his choice of a running mate who had […]
Stephanie Mencimer
Stephanie Mencimer is a Washington Monthly contributing editor.
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Backlog or Backfire?
When supporters of “class-action reform,” which passed in the Senate last week, talk about the alleged horrors of class-action litigation, they frequently hold up the tiny, impoverished, and mostly black Jefferson County, Mississippi, as Exhibit A. “Reformers” allege that current state laws allow plaintiffs’ lawyers to “forum shop” for a friendly court, such as Jefferson […]
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Insurance Impunity
One day in 1973, 65-year-old Elmer Norman went to his doctor for some hearing tests and a prescription for antibiotics to treat an ear infection. But when Norman submitted the bills to Colonial Penn Franklin, his health insurer, the company denied his $48 claim, arguing, among other things, that the prescription drug he’d received wasn’t […]
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Endless Campaign
As Democrats continue to examine the wreckage of November’s midterm elections and calculate just how badly Republicans outspent them (by a ratio of 5-to-3), they might want to take a closer look at the role of Gov. George W. Bush. Yes, that’s Gov. Bush, not President Bush. Over the past year, not only did the […]
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Children Left Behind
In early October, Nakia Burgess had just gotten a job as a transcriber in Atlanta. She had already lost two other jobs because of her inability to secure reliable and affordable child care for her 3-year-old daughter, Asan’te, who had Down syndrome. So when the temp agency she had signed up with sent her out […]