Another rural Georgia hospital is closing its doors as that state continues to block the Medicaid expansion. The Lower Oconee Community Hospital does not have enough volume to stay open, yet many of the nearby residents are being refused much need health insurance that would have provided that facility with more patients. This is the fourth rural hospital in Georgia being forced to shut down, which means residents will have to travel about thirty miles if they need hospital care. The Hospital's CEO Karen O'Neal told CBS, “It's a terrible situation, and it's tragic.”

In Wheeler County, where this hospital operates, one in four residents is uninsured, and more than 40 percent of children live in poverty. The Medicaid expansion would provide these Americans with much-needed healthcare, and it would allow these hospitals to remain open. Republicans have falsely criticized the Affordable Care Act for forcing people to change doctors, but their refusal to expand Medicaid is leaving Americans with no doctor at all.

Because of Republican governors and lawmakers, five million people are being denied health insurance, and facilities like this are being denied the income to keep their doors open. Americans deserve the health insurance that their tax dollars are paying for, and they need an emergency room that is less than thirty miles from their homes. It's time for Republicans to expand Medicaid in every state, provide medical insurance to every American, and stop playing politics with people's lives.

-Thom

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Monday's Daily Stack

Happy President's Day

Hour One: Another Stand Your Ground travesty?
- Neil McCabe, Human Events' Guns & Patriots column

Article: "Wal-Mart seeks $100,000 tax cut from Rockland, eyes statewide reductions" by Stephen Betts.

Article: "Money makes people right-wing, inegalitarian, UK study finds" by ScienceDaily.

Article: "This New Study Proves That Background Checks Save Lives" by Igor Volsky.

Article: "Media Trivializes Killing Of Unarmed Teen Jordan Davis As ‘Loud Music Trial’" by Judd Legum.

Article: "Man Allegedly Shoots And Kills 15-Year-Old Girl For Egging A Car" by Rebecca Leber.

Article: "Actually, Stand Your Ground Played a Major Role in the Trayvon Martin Case" by Mark Follman and Lauren Williams.

The Big Picture
- Andrew Campbell, The Big Picture producer

Article: "After Historic UAW Defeat at Tennessee Volkswagen Plant, Theories Abound" by Mike Elk.

Article: "This Is What The Comcast-Time Warner Deal Does To Cable TV (It's Appalling)" by Kevin Short.

Article: "Proposed Comcast-Time Warner Cable Deal Is Affront to Public Interest" by Common Cause.

Article: "Federal court strikes down FCC net neutrality rules" by Adi Robertson.

Article: "The Wolf of Sesame Street: Revealing the secret corruption inside PBS’s news division" by David Sirota.

Plus
- Joe Madison, The Joe Madison Show

Article: "Michael Dunn/ Swimsuit Edition" by H2O Man.

Article: "Daniel Beaty offers juicy history of Paul Robeson in ‘Tallest Tree’" by Nelson Pressley.

Article: "Florida Judge Rejected Stand Your Ground Defense For Black Woman Who Fired Warning Shot During Domestic Violence" by Nicole Flatow.

Article: "George Zimmerman: 'I certainly was a victim'" by Dylan Stableford.

Hour Two: Comcast-Time Warner merger...an affront to public interest?
- Tim Cavanaugh, National Review Online

Article: "Stop Whining About the Comcast-Time Warner Merger" by Matthew C. Klein.

Article: "Consumers wary of Comcast, Time Warner Cable merger" by Rick Jervis.

Article: " Fairness Doctrine " by Wikipedia.

Case: "Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission" (2010).

Case: "Buckley v. Valeo", 1976.

Case: "First National Bank Of Boston V. Bellotti", 1978.

The good: Dale Hansen: "Texas Sports Anchor Delivers Jaw-Dropping Speech On Gay NFL Players" by Ryan Grenoble.

The bad: "Virginia county sheriff hosting anti-Muslim training by disgraced conspiracy theorist" by Josh Glasstetter.

The very, very ugly: Sunday shows: "How Broadcast News Covered Climate Change In The Last Five Years " by Laura Santhanam.

Article: "'Meet The Press' Shows Us Exactly How Not To Cover Climate Change" by Jack Mirkinson.

Article: "Race plays complex role in Florida's 'stand your ground' law" by Susan Taylor Martin, Kris Hundley and Connie Humburg.

Article: "Explore our 'stand your ground' data" by Tampa Bay Times.

Article: "Are We Going to Be the Flintstones or the Jetsons? " by Thom Hartmann.

Article: "Essay: THE FUTURISTS: Looking Toward A.D. 2000".

Book: "Toward a Society of Leisure" by Joffre Dumazedier, 1967.

Book: Black Reconstruction in America, 1860-1880 by W. E. Burghardt Du Bois.

Movie: "The Birth of a Nation (1915)".

Article: "Florida 'stand your ground' law yields some shocking outcomes depending on how law is applied" by Kris Hundley, Susan Taylor Martin and Connie Humburg.

Article: "Castle doctrine" by Wikipedia.

Case: "Plessy v. Ferguson", 1896 separate but equal).

Article: "The Killing of Jordan Davis: Michael Dunn Faces 60 Years After Split Verdict in 'Thug Music' Trial" by Democracy Now!

Article: "EPA, others underestimate methane emissions, study says" by Jim Fuquay.

Article: "RadCast radiation readings - February 17, 2014".

Article: "California Lawmakers Propose First-Ever Warning Labels For Sodas" by Sy Mukherjee.

Article: "Poll: 26 percent in U.S. do not know Earth goes around sun" by UPI.

Tuesday on The Thom Hartmann Program, 3-6pm ET

Hour One: Does the right have a pipeline to God?
- Daniel Weber, Association of Mature American Citizens (AMAC)

Hour Three: Is pot the opiate of the masses?
- Kevin Jackson, The Blacksphere

And, the best of the rest of the news and your calls right here on...

The Thom Hartmann Program...your media support group for "we the people"...

Wednesday on The Thom Hartmann Program, 3-6pm ET

We'll have all the latest news and information you won't be hearing from the corporate owned news media...

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