David Sirota: Addressing the country’s health care taboo

[fencesitter]

http://www.examiner.com/a-206490%7EDavid_Sirota__Addressing_the_country_s_health_care_taboo.html

WASHINGTON - Here’s an idea rarely discussed in our nation’s capital: Health insurance should not be a for-profit industry.

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So if Americans want the private profit motive removed from health care, and the data shows nonprofit health care delivers better, more cost-efficient care, then why do so few politicians in Washington talk about creating a government-sponsored, nonprofit universal health care system? Especially at a time when health care premiums are skyrocketing, more Americans are going uninsured, and voters consistently rank health care as a top concern, the question is critical.

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No, as with everything in Washington, the real answer to the question is found by following the money. Politicians don’t talk about creating a not-for-profit health care system because they operate in a pay-to-play culture — one that rewards their silence.

Since 2000, the health industry has donated more than $370 million to the lawmakers of both political parties. The No. 1 recipient of that largesse last year was Republican Sen. Rick Santorum — the third-ranking Republican in the U.S. Senate who has ardently opposed a single-payer health care system. No. 2 was Democratic Sen. Hillary Clinton — who, just 12 years removed from her attempt to reform health care, is now giving speeches apologizing for her previous efforts. Also bathed in health industry cash has been Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist. He has been a key opponent of health care reform — not surprising, considering he is also one of the heirs of HCA, the largest for-profit hospital chain in America.

[rodeodance]

1. all I can say is that we need to get this issue on the campaign agenda.

[Dr.Phool]

5. My friends major campaign issue is universal, single-payer

Healthcare, as in John Conyers, H.R. 676, www.healthcarenow.org

And my friends website is www.johnrussellforcongress.com
in Florida's 5th District.

[Demeter]

2. It's Because Too Many Don't Want to Pay for Equal Treatment

that health care is the mess it is in this country. There are the privileged corporate princes, who don't pay for anything either directly or indirectly--their health care is a divine right.

There are the destitute, whose ability to get care depends on whether their health gives out before they force some dribbles of treatment out of the system, and it can be touch and go whether the treatment they get is effective.

There are those in the middle--one paycheck away from joining the destitute, scrambling to keep economic body and soul together.

And there are the vultures of health care--the insurance carriers, making money by denying people health care.

Try and convince the princes that other people need health care--and watch out for the GOP BS about freedom of choice, charity from churches, and waste and fraud. Also, expect mudslinging at the public health systems of more enlightened countries--from Canada to Cuba.

Try and convince the middle--and get regurgitated Reaganism about welfare. Unless the middle has suddenly become a displaced worker.

Don't even bother the poor--they have enough to do already trying to keep alive long enough for the economy to show some interest in them.

As the classes sort out into two, the popular support for one-payer health care may finally begin to register with the voting public. Before we are all dead.

[Dogmudgeon]

3. How's this for progress

My physician used to be a staunch Repubican.

I mean, staunch. He drank every drop of the Kool-Aid, and he bellied up for more.

But no more. Last time my mother saw him, he complained bitterly about Bush, the Republican Party, and the insurance companies.

The tide's coming in.

--p!

[Dr.Phool]

4. My doctor, a former Repub, is compaining about Medicare

Reimbursement rates being cut by 15% over 3 years.