The Midnight Stranglers: Obamacare, The Tea Party, and a Sleep Apneac’s Fight Against the U.S. Healthcare System, which was self-published in the first week of the new year, is a product of three BAIPA members: Author Aiden Hill, Editor David Colin Carr, and Designer (interior, exterior, and web, as well as production overseer) Jeff Brandenburg. And we had a blast working together. Aiden wanted this on sale the day Obamacare went into effect – and we were able to edit, design, and produce it in six weeks. The experience was exhilarating.
Invoking a macabre sense of humor that draws on films that are our common American heritage, Aiden invokes his treatment for sleep apnea to describe the disaster that healthcare legislation attempted to rectify. Names are named. As Bob Pimm said in the last BAIPA presentation: you can’t be accused of defamation for describing your lived experience.
The experience motivated Aiden to use his professional skills as an organizational consultant to help the program that would be unrolled in his state. His experience is detailed in the book as a way of showing how the well-functioning of Covered California was intentionally blocked.
And by happenstance, last Thursday, the board of Covered California held a public hearing in which anyone could take two minutes to describe their experience with the program. Here’s a link to Aiden’s presentation, which ends with the call for an investigation (the people in the front row of the audience are the cast of characters named in the book. You’ll notice how gloomy they look):
If you are moved to follow up, you can also contact two people to request the investigation:
Secretary Diana S. Dooley
CA Health & Human Services Agency
1600 Ninth Street, Room 460
Sacramento, CA 95814
916-654-34545
Governor Jerry Brown
c/o State Capitol, Suite 1173
Sacramento, CA 95814
916-558-3160
Between Aiden’s personal health odyssey and professional escapade, he explores the mentality and motivation of the Tea Party’s attempt to destroy the Affordable Care Act. If you’re motivated to dig in, you can buy the ebook or paperback on Amazon. Aiden’s website is: www.TheMidnightStranglers.com.
