It's beyond disgusting to think the greedy
Health Ins. Ind. & Big Pharma (lobbies) will stab us in the
back again by not allowing low income workers access to health
ins.. I wonder how many families will suffer because of this
stranglehold. Why aren’t there statistics out there? When
these cruel SOB's can call the shots as to who will not suffer
(those with high incomes) and who will agonize because they will
be turned away from health providers simply because they lack the
funds, is deplorable for a country like ours! I was going to keep
pounding my keyboard, spreading the plight for single payer ins.
around, signing as many petitions as I could find to get it back
on the table. But now I’m so distressed by the power of
health insurance lobbies; it appears futile, once again GREED
WINS! “Of all the animals, man is the only one that is
cruel. He is the only one that inflicts pain for the pleasure of
doing it. It is a trait that is not known to the higher
animals.” – Mark TwainTHINKINGBLUE
It is interesting watching the debate about health care
reform, especially because it is hard to tell who is actually
trying to reform the US health care system, and who is just
looking out for their own interests:
One of the most ironic things is how the government and
the media (even including those people who are leading
the charge for health insurance reform) are conspiring
to eliminate any mention of a single payer insurance
system. This, despite the fact that a strong majority
of Americans favor single payer, and it is the most
common system in other first world nations. The main reason they give for this (when
they are asked at all) is that it is just not
“politically possible”. Which to me means
“the insurance companies are just too powerful and
won’t allow it”. Indeed, the insurance industry
ranks second in money spent on lobbying
(the number one spot is held by the pharmaceutical and
health products industry). Two other health related
industries — hospitals, and health professionals
— are on the list of top twenty lobbyists. Together,
those four health-related industries spent a combined
$4.2 billion over the last ten years on lobbying
alone.
Second, even though the Republican Party has been working
overtime lately to take obstructionism to a new level,
they have been curiously silent about health care reform,
and sometimes even supportive. A new light was shed on
this with the publication of a set
of talking points from Republican consultant Frank Luntz
on health reform, which seem to urge Republicans to
co-opt the language of health reform in order to sabotage
any actual or meaningful reform. In other words, Luntz
says that Republicans should say they are for
health reform, but qualify that by using feel-good
phrases like “we need a uniquely American
approach”.
Likewise, reading the writing on the wall, the health
insurance industry is promising to reform itself.
This is the same thing it did in 1977 to prevent Carter
from imposing reforms on the industry. And they did it
again as part of the defeat of health reform during the
Clinton administration. Look how well those reforms
worked. The industry hopes that it can kill
any choice of public insurance, so they can
retain their stranglehold.
But the most bizarre thing is that while the Republican
Party itself has been relatively silent, other groups are
springing up to fight health reform. For example, the
group Conservatives
for Patients’ Rights is launching a $20 million
campaign to kill Obama’s efforts at health
reform. Who are these people? Well, the group that is
coordinating their campaign is PRC Public Relations
— the same group that Swiftboated John Kerry back in
2004. And the leader of the Conservatives for
Patients’ Rights is Rick
Scott, the former CEO of the largest hospital chain
in America, who was forced to resign after his company
pled guilty to the largest health care fraud case in US history.
Ironically, even though the Conservatives for
Patients’ Rights are against any public insurance
plan, Scott’s company made their money by falsifying
their Medicare claims. Stunningly, Scott is using $5
million of his own money — dollars he earned by
cheating Medicare, which is government insurance —
to fight against government insurance.
