Word: gagged
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...nearly anybody who has come into contact with the system can recite a litany of horror stories: nitpicking "utilization reviews" of doctors' bills by insurance-company bureaucrats; patients hustled out of a hospital within hours, even after surgery as traumatic as breast removal; gag orders forbidding doctors to tell a patient about an expensive treatment. A recent addition: a patient rushes to an emergency room with what feels like a heart attack but turns out to be only gas pains--and gets zapped with a huge bill because his HMO will reimburse only for a "real" emergency...
Nevertheless, the association is promulgating a code that prohibits its 1,000 member HMOs from enforcing gag rules and employing such practices as drive-by mastectomies, on pain of being kicked out. In what looks like an if-you-can't-lick-'em-join-'em move, the association has even announced support for Clinton's panel. Pisano hopefully predicts a "thoughtful" study--leading, presumably, to mild recommendations...
...normally rather sober Advertising Age trade magazine, NEWT GINGRICH, bearing a feather mustache, gives his advice on eating crow. "The key is start early. With just a few feathers a day," says the copy. "Then when the time comes to swallow the whole bird, you won't gag a bit." The American Dairy Association isn't a Comedy Central advertiser, but its sister organization, the California Milk Advisory Board, is. Let's hope it isn't a big account...
Unfortunately, his insistence on repetition beats his jokes to death. The running gag of the show is the neurotic cockney maid Edith, who is unable to perform her duties at a normal pace. To clear the breakfast trays she needs a running start, and Ruth spends the duration of the play trying to slow her down. The triviality of this detail is magnified enormously as it is repeated, endlessly. Also distracting is the number of times Charles visits the liquor cabinet and meticulously makes dry martinis--stirred, not shaken. The pace of the plot is not quick enough to keep...
...with cheers as word of the jury's decision became clear. Unlike the criminal trial, which required a unanimous decision, only 9 of the 12 civil jurors had to agree on a decision against Simpson. But what swayed all of the jurors to go him remains unclear as a gag order was placed on the trial until Judge Hiroshi Fujisaki makes a ruling on whether Simpson should pay additional punitive damages on top of the $8.5 million. The punitive stage of the trial is tentatively slated for Thursday. Louis and Juditha Brown, the parents of Nicole Brown Simpson...