If the Healthcare-Industrial complex's $1.4 million A DAY effort to defeat the public plan works....

[marmar]

......I wonder who they're going to recoup those costs from?


:think: Hmmmmmm........



via Truthdig:



Government Insiders Lobbying for Health Care Companies
Posted on Jul 6, 2009


According to The Washington Post, the U.S. health care industry has hired over 350 ex-government officials and ex-members of Congress to influence their former colleagues in the debate over health care reform. The newspaper’s report says three out of every four major health care companies employ at least one government insider and an estimated $1.4 million is spent daily on lobbying efforts by the health care industry.

The Washington Post via CBS News:

The nation’s largest insurers, hospitals and medical groups have hired more than 350 former government staff members and retired members of Congress in hopes of influencing their old bosses and colleagues, according to an analysis of lobbying disclosures and other records.

The tactic is so widespread that three of every four major health-care firms have at least one former insider on their lobbying payrolls, according to The Washington Post’s analysis.

Nearly half of the insiders previously worked for the key committees and lawmakers, including Sens. Max Baucus (D-Mont.) and Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa), debating whether to adopt a public insurance option opposed by major industry groups. At least 10 others have been members of Congress, such as former House majority leaders Richard K. Armey (R-Tex.) and Richard A. Gephardt (D-Mo.), both of whom represent a New Jersey pharmaceutical firm.

Read More

http://www.truthdig.com/eartotheground/item/20090706_ex-government_insiders_lobby_for_healthcare/

[KansDem]

1. For some strange reason I imagine my co-pay increasing sometime in the near future...(nt)

[pleah]

2. K&R I can't afford any more "change".

:(

[azul]

3. This is the way corrupted capitalism works when corporations have

bought their way, illegally, to rights and powers: they get their money's worth, and more.

Time to pull the charters of corporate persons that would buy influence to thwart the will of real people. And time to throw some of these rascals in the time-out box for corruption.

Trouble is how to focus attention on this problem and get legislation passed if the corporate media is directing the show. What, it might take 100,000 people dying a year from medical errors, 20,000 dying from lack of insurance, 50,000,000 people uninsured, 1,000,000 families bankrupted from medical bills? Or $1.4 million a day on influence peddling?

What, Sicko was about the extent of the true message, and didn't quite measure up to the corporate story of privatized medicine for the wealthy? No, many people get it, they want this broken system fixed, not made more expensive and worse. Do their reps?

National Health Now!