Recently The Blade reported that ProMedica Healthcare Systems is once again headed to court due to alleged anti-competitive behavior.
Prioritizing profits over people is a pattern of behavior for the health care giant. I stand with McLaren St. Luke’s in their fight, because I know what it feels like to have my own community hospital in ProMedica’s sights. I have witnessed the havoc ProMedica has caused to the University of Toledo Medical Center through the 2015 Academic Affiliation Agreement with ProMedica Healthcare System.
As the old saying goes, “Where there is a will there is a way,” and ProMedica seems hell bent on taking over the Toledo health care market by any and all means.
Because of the COVID-19 crisis, people are already scared to get the routine care they need. My neighbors and family deserve to have multiple options for medical care across the northwest Ohio region, rather than having to settle for the only provider available. A major public health crisis is not the time to make patients find a new doctor.
Having a variety of options helps foster competition and keep prices down for consumers. The courts stopped ProMedica from creating a monopoly once, and they can do it again. However, they must act quickly before thousands of families in the Toledo area loose access to the medical provider they prefer.
TERESA FEDOR
State Senator, District 11
Sore losers
There are reasons President Trump does not recognize President-elect Joe Biden’s election win. He wants to delegitimize Mr. Biden’s victory, promote anger in his supporters, disable a Biden transition, and stay relevant in the news. Voter fraud is not one of the reasons.
Mr. Biden beat Mr. Trump with at least 290 of the 270 electoral votes needed for the presidency and will probably finish with a total of 306. He will likely have 6 million more popular votes than Mr. Trump — a decisive victory.
Out of 15 lawsuits in Pennsylvania alone that Mr. Trump’s attorneys have filed claiming voter fraud, they have prevailed in only one. And that case affects a small number of ballots without changing the election outcome. Other cases across the country have been thrown out of court, often with a judge’s reprimand for lack of evidence. Mr. Trump and his team have posted or retweeted false and manipulated stories, photos, and videos attempting to prove fraudulent voting. So far, none are legitimate.
Mr. Trump’s right-wing media frontmen endlessly repeat the fiction of election fraud, thereby giving life to a conspiracy-possessed fan base. Yet, there is no evidence of widespread voter fraud.
Republicans, do you remember in 2016 when Hillary Clinton lost, and you kept telling Democrats to “get over it”? Remember when she conceded the next day, and two days later, President Barack Obama met with Mr. Trump at the White House? Remember when Mr. Obama announced a transfer of power to the incoming Trump Administration at that same meeting?
False accusations, conspiracy theories, baseless lawsuits, petty firings, and whiny attention-seeking from Donald Trump won’t save him. He lost, and Joe Biden won. Now is the time to phone Congressional Republicans and demand they cooperate in transitioning into a Biden administration.
LARRY ROSENBERG
West Toledo
First Published November 17, 2020, 5:00 a.m.
