Major Banks Cash In On YOUR Medical Debt & Feds Are Trying To Make Journalism A Crime

Medical debt is trapping families in poverty – and big banks are cashing in on it. Also, Julian Assange is still facing extradition and charges of violating the Espionage Act for exposing the US military’s war crimes. Mike Papantonio & Farron Cousins discuss more.

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*This transcript was generated by a third-party transcription software company, so please excuse any typos.

All right. Medical debt is trapping families in poverty and big banks, they're cashing in on it. How many big bank stories do we have to do to where somebody says, Jesus, we need to really rethink of how we're treating Wall Street? You know, when I was, I gotta tell you, in the, in the maybe sixties or the seventies, banks weren't, you know, it was, it wasn't that, was it Gekko. What was the movie that was made, greed is good, you know?

Wall Street.

Wall Street. Okay. Before Wall Street you had mom and pop banks. Okay. And then just like everything else you had, you had predators come in and buy all the mom and pop banks and come up with organizations like Wells Fargo, and you name it, Chase Manhattan. And so now we're at a point to where, I don't think there's a way to turn around here, man. This is an ugly story. Why don't you give, give us the story.

Yeah. Excuse me. Basically what's happening here is obviously medical debt is a massive problem here in the United States. Skyrocketing healthcare costs, skyrocketing prescription drugs, surgery costs, whatever it is and people can't pay it. So the big banks thought, wait a minute, here's people in debt. How do we capitalize on this? Well, we partner with the hospitals.

Mm-hmm.

So when you're recovering from your surgery, the hospital comes up to you with a document and says, hey, uh, this is gonna set you, you back about $80,000. But don't worry, sign this little piece of paper right here. We're, we're partnered with this Allied bank over here, whatever it is.

Yeah.

You sign this, they're gonna give you the loan and pay it off and you don't have to worry. I know you just got a new heart a few hours ago, and we wanna make it as hassle free for you as possible. So they take out these massive loans that do, for the most part, at first, have a lower interest rate than a credit card.

And then every year it turns and it turns and it turns.

It just balloons and balloons and balloons. And they're, they're screwing these patients over.

Who are the people behind this? Is it, is it coming directly, is it Wall, is it a new Wall Street grab or is it just kind of, just here and there?

It's, it's both Wall Street because you got a lot of hedge funds in it and just the simple greed of the hospital industry.

Yeah.

And I think people overlook the hospital industry.

Yeah.

We don't have, you know, you've talked about mom and pop, we don't have mom and pop banks.

No.

We don't have mom and pop medical centers anymore.

Doctor, doctor owned doctor. Doctor owned hospitals are a thing of the past.

Yeah.

You know, where they came in and consolidated all that. This is how it lands right here.

Yep. And it's all about the money. It's not about the care. And the banks said, there's a lot of money in this. Let's go get our cut.

Okay.

Julian Assange is still facing extradition and charges of violating the Espionage Act for exposing the US military's war crimes. You know, this story has always bothered me so badly because, you know, the people love to, he's a criminal. He did these terrible things. He raped a girl, which proved to be completely nonsense.

Yeah.

That was years ago and they said no. No, he didn't. As a matter of fact, it was, that was created by the spook industry. The spook industry created that story to discredit him. Pick this up and how dangerous the Espionage Act is, and how if they use it against him, we're in big trouble.

Yeah. We are. Listen, you know, people love him or hate him. It doesn't matter your personal feelings about him at all. What we're talking about here is journalism itself at risk. And Julian Assange is, is currently facing extradition to the United States. They want to charge him under the Espionage Act, which could put him in prison forever until he, till he dies.