The core problem is that right now about 30% of every health care
dollar goes to insurance conglomerate and big pharma overhead and
profit, a large part of which represents medical care WRONGFULLY and
purposely denied. If you are looking for so-called death panels
(actually death czars), they are the EXISTING business model in place
for the corporate medical insurance industry, where single
bureaucrats are under the directive to deny as much care as they can
get way with. Every other major industrial country long ago switched
to some kind of single payer system, where full and comprehensive
health care is deemed a right of every tax paying citizen. And not
one of those countries has switched back to their previous
inefficient, private for profit systems.
And yet all we hear on cable TV are unrelenting lies and smears about
the systems of these other countries, including demagoguery about how
it's basically all some kind of commie conspiracy, as if that
language was not old and tired enough already. Sean Hannity recruited
some guy with a British accent to denigrate his own country's health
care (which he had never actually used), only to be denounced himself
by actual members of the British parliament. An investor's paper
asserted that Dr. Stephen Hawking would have died if he had depended
on UK health care, when in FACT it had saved his life. And when you
call these liars out on their lies they just tell new and fresh ones
and keep on trucking.
Please read below so you will at least know what everyone is talking about- and then you decide:
What single payer does in essence is pool the medical interests of
those who need care, and thereby gives them the power to negotiate,
through whatever is established as the funding agency, favorable and
truly competitive pricing from the medical service providers.
Government does not "take over" health care, it just takes
responsibility for paying for it. And by eliminating complicated
coverage bureaucracies it is a much more efficient system with lower
overhead. And THIS is why it is so mortally opposed by those
profitting off our existing inefficient, uneconomical system now.
We are hearing alot of talk about a so-called "public option". What
exactly is the difference between that and single payer health care,
you ask? The first thing you must understand about what is being
called the "public option" is that it was designed to be a
distraction, to give the American people a FALSE choice. What the
corporate interests orchestrating this whole charade want to do is
transform the debate, such as it is, into an argument about whether
there should be a "public option" or not.
But as designed, the "public option" being propounded would do NONE
of the effective things that a single payer system would do. It would
not give itself the clout to actual compete with the existing corrupt
system. It would not eliminate the byzantine overhead as compared to
the miserable mess we have now. In other words, it is being designed
to FAIL. Heads they win, tails we lose. They last thing the medical
insurance industry wants is actual meaningful competition, and that
is why they have tried to keep true single payer out of the debate
entirely, as sick as that sounds.
One symptom of this is talk over the weekend that the Senate is
working on a "streamlined" proposal, because even the congressional
budget office recognizes what a massive, honking scam this all is.
But why do we have to reinvent the wheel? HR 676, a true single payer
bill, Medicare for All, has been on the table for years already, with
more sponsors in the House than any other proposal. So why don't they
just pass it already? Because the insurance companies won't have it??
What about the interests of the American policy? When is it time for
actual good public policy in this country for a change?
Even worse, under the guise of so-called reform, the one proposal you
can count on surviving is a REQUIREMENT that you pay for whatever
they come up with. You say you can't afford health insurance now and
that is why you have no coverage? Well guess what, they want you to
be FORCED to become a customer of these same greedy medical
conglomerates, or pay effectively NO LESS for a phony "public
option", all the cost of single payer with NONE of the real benefits,
and it is just as sick as it sounds.
The false choice debate was in high gear this week with Pelosi
demanding a "public option". Then just the next day Steny Hoyer piped
up and said the "public option" might have to go. Well, it is
beginning to appear more and more like Steny Hoyer will have to go,
and probably Pelosi as well, if we are ever going to ever have real
policy reform in this country. And the first step in that direction
is to keep speaking out, something that frankly NONE of those on our
side are doing enough of right now.
The entire so-called debate, such as it is, is being driven by a tiny
handful of loudmouths given over-sized coverage in the corporate
media, from a couple lunatics disrupting town halls to right wing
reactionaries with giant media megaphones, and those not on the
corporate payroll are just too stupid to demand their salary. Yet and
still, the only way they can possibly win is for us to NOT raise our
voices and keep doing so.
We know the phone lobby resource is a new thing, and it may take a
while for our participants to get used to using it, and to understand
how powerful it will be. Right there at your finger tips are links to
pop up the local district office phone numbers of your own members of
Congress. Right there is a link to pop up a window of policy points
to make on the phone. We have done everything we can to make it as
easy to use as possible, just like our regular email action pages.
So please take the time to use one or the other
HR 676 People's Phone Lobby:
or the email to Congress action page on this same issue at
HR 676 Email Action Page:
Speak out again, and keep speaking out. Don't let the handful of
right wing loudmouths be the only voices out there. There are so many
more of us on the people's side. If you just make your voice heard
there is no corporate power than can prevail against us. They are
depending on your silence to cheat you out of the medical care you
deserve as a citizen of the United States of America. Is this the
only first world country where we CAN'T put good, public policy in
place? Don't let it happen, please speak out again now.
