Health Care Cave In?
i like Robert Reich, though most of what he has to say these days is incredibly depressing. he has a column up over at TPM today that basically predicts an upcoming cave by Obama and the Dems on a health care plan that would provide, if not single-payer, at least a Medicare-type option run by the gov't which would have such a large base that it could negotiate the best rates from the Pharmacalogical, Insurance, and Med industries. well of course those industries are all pushing back hard -- didn't the White House, which promised this new insurance option on the campaign trail, predict that push back? if so why aren't they prepared to fight it to get what they want and more importantly what is right? Frustrating and sad to watch. You don't have to just watch though....you can call your Senator! Daily Kos has an informative diary up now about the issue, phone numbers included.
posted by Mac at 2:31 PM
3 Comments:
At first I laughed when the Daily Show annotated Obama's campaign slogan to say...
YES WE CAN*
(* but it doesn't necessarily mean we will)
... but as time passes, not so much with the laughter.
yeah...i don't think anyone believed it would be easy to do what Obama wants to do, but the lack of support from his "fellow" Democrats is one of the more depressing aspects of the whole thing. Guys like Schumer are basically saying "ok you may not be owned, but we are! and our legislation will reflect that, so don't get any big ideas"
Health care costs currently make up almost 17% of our GDP, even with 48 million citizens uninsured. Compared to UK and Canada (both at or under 11%), that's one huge industry. I applaud Obama for (hopefully) giving it a sincere try, but the AMA, pharma lobbies, insurance lobbies, and others are too strong at this stage of the game to allow any true reform. But should be interesting to see how it all plays out.
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