Corporate chokehold

Once again, the corporate interests that have a chokehold on our elected representative bodies have succeeded in derailing any real change for the better.

The health care bill is now a bloated corpse – a rotted, stinking shell of what was once originally envisioned. All this thing will succeed in doing is reward the soulless insurance corporations for their intransigence by making them even richer.

The Democrats promised that if we would just give them a 60 seat majority in the Senate, a majority in the House and a Democratic president, they would be able to finally deliver. Instead, the spineless bunch has caved, again, even on abortion rights.

What could have been their greatest moment, when they finally stood up for the people against the big-moneyed interests, has instead disintegrated into the predictable mind-numbing process we helplessly witnessed this summer and fall: Just another giveaway to the mega-corps running the country.

The big mistake, of course, was compromising right off the bat, then compromising some more, then some more, ad nauseam... all in a futile attempt to come up with some kind of “bipartisan” bill, so that the Dems could say they are “mainstream.”

Rather than take Single Payer off the table at the start, they should have used it as their bargaining position. Then, perhaps, we might have been able to at least get a real, robust public option.

Personally, I think Single Payer is the way to go. The rest of the democratic industrialized world runs its variations of it quite successfully, and we even run one already ourselves – in the form of Medicare for seniors. It’s true that when this process started, it didn’t seem could pass such a bill, being that our legislature is what it is. Still, as any negotiator knows, you don’t start out giving away the store.

But there is still a Single Payer bill alive, HR 676; and a California bill, SB 810. Now that the public option plan has become a Frankensteinian monstrosity, it’s what we ought to fight for. Thousands of doctors and nurses nationwide back it. Let’s dump the bloated giveaway bill, and go for the gold.


P.S. It’s that time again! This holiday season, give a unique, thoughtful gift, one that keeps giving all year long – the Humor Times!

What are we, idiots?

From Robert Creamer, HuffingtonPost.com:

We spend $7,290 per person and end up in 37th place. They spend only $3,601 and they are number one. That's just not right.

On the average, Frenchmen live almost three years longer than the average American. That's infuriating.

What's more, every legal resident of France is covered by health insurance, and in the U.S. 46 million people are uninsured. When someone in France goes to the hospital, everything except a small co-payment is covered - it's that simple.

The government doesn't deliver health care in France. Private doctors and hospitals do most of that. It just provides health insurance for everyone.

If you walk into one store and a suit you like costs $600 - and next door the very same suit is $300 - most people would call you a chump for spending $600. In this case the French are paying $300 and getting a better suit. What are we, idiots?

Read more.

Hilarious! Will Ferrell stands up for the real health care victims.

Protect Insurance Companies PSA from Will Ferrell

New York Times shirks journalistic responsibility

The New York Times devoted some rare space on September 20 to discussing single-payer (or Medicare-for-all) health reform.

NYT public editor Clark Hoyt ran a piece devoted to undermining the case for single-payer health care without allowing advocates to make the case in support of Medicare for all. Seems awfully one-sided. And as is predictable in such a one-sided article, they got it all wrong.

Single payer is the way to go, and enjoys huge support among those that matter - the citizens of this country. If the media reported that support as it should, maybe our representatives would feel the pressure to buck the corporate interests that are holding US health policy hostage. But, no, the media continue to enable the insurance behemoths that put profits over people's health.

You can write to Mr. Hoyt, as I did, at public@nytimes.com or call him at (212) 556-7652, and let him know the media needs to take responsibility for presenting all sides in this critical debate.

Best health care solution yet!

Thom Hartmann has the best idea for health care reform, laid out in an open letter to the prez entitled
A Modest Medicare Proposal.

In it, he proposes the simplest solution yet, which is completely revenue neutral and has no complicated provisions that give the right-wing corporate health care deniers (not providers -- let's be honest here) nothing to sink their teeth into.

The idea is to let citizens buy into Medicare if they so choose. Brilliant! Medicare is so cost-effective that allowing people to buy into it should be way cheaper than paying for health insurance from these profit-crazy crooks that are fleecing us now.

Please read Thom's article and send a letter to Obama and your reps today!