Chris Hedges: The Health Care Hindenburg Has Landed

[marmar]

from Truthdig:



The Health Care Hindenburg Has Landed
Posted on Mar 22, 2010

By Chris Hedges


Rep. Dennis Kucinich’s decision to vote “yes” in Sunday’s House action on the health care bill, although he had sworn to oppose the legislation unless there was a public option, is a perfect example of why I would never be a politician. I respect Kucinich. As politicians go, he is about as good as they get, but he is still a politician. He has to run for office. He has to raise money. He has to placate the Democratic machine or risk retaliation and defeat. And so he signed on to a bill that will do nothing to ameliorate the suffering of many Americans, will force tens of millions of people to fork over a lot of money for a defective product and, in the end, will add to the ranks of our uninsured.

The claims made by the proponents of the bill are the usual deceptive corporate advertising. The bill will not expand coverage to 30 million uninsured, especially since government subsidies will not take effect until 2014. Families who cannot pay the high premiums, deductibles and co-payments, estimated to be between 15 and 18 percent of most family incomes, will have to default, increasing the number of uninsured. Insurance companies can unilaterally raise prices without ceilings or caps and monopolize local markets to shut out competitors. The $1.055 trillion spent over the next decade will add new layers of bureaucratic red tape to what is an unmanageable and ultimately unsustainable system.

The mendacity of the Democratic leadership in the face of this reality is staggering. Howard Dean, who is a doctor, said recently: “This is a vote about one thing: Are you for the insurance companies or are you for the American people?” Here is a man who once championed the public option and now has sold his soul. What is the point in supporting him or any of the other Democrats? How much more craven can they get?

Take a look at the health care debacle in Massachusetts, a model for what we will get nationwide. One in six people there who have the mandated insurance say they cannot afford care, and tens of thousands of people have been evicted from the state program because of budget cuts. The 45,000 Americans who die each year because they cannot afford coverage will not be saved under the federal legislation. Half of all personal bankruptcies will still be caused by an inability to pay astronomical medical bills. The only good news is that health care stocks and bonuses for the heads of these corporations are shooting upward. Chalk this up as yet another victory for our feudal overlords and a defeat for the serfs. ..........(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/the_health_care_hindenburg_has_landed_20100322/

[kstewart33]

1. Oh please.

No more pre-existing conditions. Help for small business to ensure their employees. Kids insured by their parents until age 26 (my youngest daughter has lung problems - at least she'll be covered if she needs more time after college to find a good job with an employer with a good health plan). No more recissions. 32 million insured.
No more lifetime caps on coverage.

2014? Better then than never.

In fact, much better this than nothing.

Congrats Obama and the Dems.

[scentopine]

3. Liberals blown out of the water again...

I am a liberal - there are still a few of us left in America, not that you would notice. We are hated. Here is why.

In generals liberals have warned on the following "historic" policy initiatives:

Banking Deregulation - two times (1980's, 1990's) warning that deregulating banking and allowing anyone and their brother to open an investment bank would lead to a giant transfer of wealth from middle class to rich. Pensions were eliminated, 401Ks were supposed to create a miracle of wealth for retirement. Liberal concerns about corruption and fraud were scoffed at by democrats and republicans. We've all seen how this has worked out.

War in Iraq - liberals warned again that this was a doubious enterprise, secret meetings with oil companies prior to the invasion, fabricated evidence, marching drums, cowboy mentality. We were scoffed at by democrats and republicans. Some democrats called me a freedom hater. It is the poor and middle class who are dying on teh US side and about a million dead in the two coflicts on the enemy side. With such success against an impoverished enemy, what other option could there be other than to escalate? Liberals were told to sit down and shut up. We were right.

Energy Deregulation - once again liberals warned that this was designed create an exchange of middlemen parasites to feed off the publlic. Energy like health care is an essential service for human life. And that is why these exchanges are so popular. The rich can pay more. The not rich get fucked. Once again we were correct.

Torture, Lack of Prosecution for Wall Street Crime, Duplicitous justice system - the moral hazard genie is out of the bottle. Liberals are arguing that lack of aggressive investigation and prosecution is simply giving a green light to fraud. So far it looks like we are correct as Wall Street is currently back at trading derivatives, planning new derivative exchanges for the the new mandated health insurance. Meanwhile the bank executives that defrauded the public are holding on to a massive pool of repossessed real estate and collecting government cash for handling the transactions. Liberals would make this practice illegal. As for torture - its just another example of unprincipled democrats afraid of upsetting a few tea baggers. Democrats and republicans are also protecting the massive contracting companies that helped torture prisoners. Their campaign contriibutions are critical.

Economic Recovery- Liberals warned that a recovery filled with tax credits and funds for state budget shortfalls does not really count as a recovery. Liberals want more emphasis on jobs creation and less emphasis on free trade, NAFTA and outsourcing. Democrats and republicans told us that unions were killing American industry. Liberals said that was a lie. They destroyed the unions. They outsourced to Mexico. They outsourced to CHina. GM still continued to be a shitty company. And we bailed them out with tax payer money. Liberals argued this was money for nothing. Now GM is back pushing suburbans and big trucks.

Each of these events are historic and by themselves have cost trillions (4 or 5 or more). We could mention environment policy,cap & trade, middle east policy, fairness doctrine in broadcasting, monopolies, etc.

Now liberals are warning against the next "free market" reform. There are very few cost controls in place. Insurance companies may not be able to deny specific coverages however, they can charge lifestyle premiums if you have certain medical issues that people attribute to lifestyle. Sort of like punishing people for choosing to be gay.

So, the right wing centrists have won another battle against the middle class. The rich won't notice any change. Some coverage will be affordable by the poorest. The middle class gets completely fucked over. Again.

And they are privatizing school systems and wall street has their guns aimed at social security.

You are very confident that your daughter will land a good job and get excellent coverage. Good luck. I have two straight A kids at top of class and having 40 years of corporate experience I can tell you that the odds are VERY much against your daughter. Maybe you are better than everyone else or maybe you can pull some strings - but the trend is strongly against you. In fact, corporations are now testing taking away vacations and other perks.

My wife has MS. I am unable to start a small business I had planned for years. I won't be able to do that with the new plan either due to lack of cost controls. I'm still looking at the hundreds of loop holes but it looks like coverage may not be available for her treatments which can run into 15K a year. or so on top of outrageously expensive premiums.

This bill is about not denying coverage for the rich. Everyone else is being punished for not being rich.

Liberals will still fight for something better and we will probably continue to lose because both democrats and republicans simply hate us for being right.

[Demeter]

4. "Everyone Being Punished For Not Being Rich"

How true.

At least they cannot say there isn't equality of opportunity to go bankrupt....

[nightrain]

5. knr. The worst is yet to come... the celebrating is window dressing for

Obama. He desperately needed a "win" at almost any cost. We, middle class folk, will be bearing the brunt of this "reform", more aptly "corporate entrenchment". The celebratory mood reminds me of the partying on the Titanic after the berg was hit. Yes, the rich won't get hit, again. I checked the calculator at

http://healthreform.kff.org/SubsidyCalculator.aspx


and lo and behold, my rates have gone up! Now varying between 5 and 7K for the premium alone! Joining the ranks of the still uninsured. A t-shirt would have been nice, but I got nothing out of this "victory".

Such a travesty! Empty, pyrrhic victory.

[Myrina]

7. ... just wait until the insurance companies start finding ways to 'creatively charge' ...

.... sure, they can't refuse you for a pre-existing condition or if you get sick, but they sure as hell can surcharge your ass right into the poor house because now you're in a 'different category'.

Late payment? Surcharge.
Change of employer? Surcharge.
Did you fart last week? Surcharge.

Think of credit card companies and lawyers - they charge fees to clients simply for existing.


And there isn't going to be a damn thing anyone can do, because now they own us and the government.

[truedelphi]

8. No one was too celebratory here. I agree with Marcie Angell

That about the only people who will immediately benefit are the folks with kids age 19 to 26 and for them this bill is a huge relief.

For everyone else, it is probably pretty much a "same old, same old." Like it is being said, you can look to Massachusetts to see how it affects the lower incomed and middle incomed.

[Uncle Joe]

11. I believe that was a false premise; the corporate media promoted.

"Obama. He desperately needed a "win" at almost any cost."

They wanted the President to believe it as well.

[icee]

6. Excellent post. This nothingness of this bill will be a disaster

unmatched in Democratic history. Why? Broken down to its lowest common denomimator: money. The cost of this program will be at least twice what has been stated. Premiums will continue to go up because the control of premiums provision was killed at the last minute. Who really benefited from the reform: The insurance companies. It will take a few weeks for the dust to settle, but watch how many doctors give up their practices. And look who replaces them. Only 6% of doctors graduating from American medical schools are going into general practice. So who is making up the shortfall? Figure it out. Should be easy.

[ShortnFiery]

9. "... privatizing school systems and wall street has their guns aimed at social security."

And they'll do it too. Why? Because the American people are ASLEEP!

[bkozumplik]

10. well spoken scentopine (n/t)

[scentopine]

2. deleted- wrong thread