The premise of WESM was that competition would make prices go down. There are others but I believe this was the primary reason. I can’t believe I’m saying this but the people who put this bill through were either duped or were willingly part of the ruse that is the privatization of everything. You don’t get something out of nothing. I’d like to discuss this later but the fact is I suspect that privatization is mostly to give room for the current government to handle the budget deficits.
READ THE WHOLE THING.
We can’t afford the surcharge added to medical costs by insurance companies, HMOs, drug companies and all the rest. We don’t have the money. When the Democrats and some courageous Republicans get Health Care through, a whole lot of people are going to benefit, and even more are going to like the idea of it. They will remember that the official Republican policy was “Just say no.” The GOP has been captured by a far-right movement that places its abstract ideology above practical needs and concerns in the real world. Well, it does. You can see that when Tea Partiers demonstrate against their own self-interest.
Those poor TeePee people are manipulated by ideologues who in many cases are themselves manipulated by lobbyists. Did you read about one big provision Republicans objected to in the new Obama health bill? It was the one that wanted to do something about how insurance companies use “preexisting conditions” to cancel policies. This is real simple: Who stands to benefit by being against language on “preexisting conditions?” It’s not anybody with a policy. It’s the insurance companies.
As it now stands, if it’s any more watered down, Obamacare will be homeopathic. It incorporates so many compromises with the Republicans that anyone voting against it isn’t opposing the language — they’re just opposing Obama. We can’t afford that. The American voters are pretty smart, and they’re figuring that out.
We’re in for some hard times. We need to pull in our belts, pay more taxes, demand more value for our taxes, and say no to an ideology that requires converting our health money into corporate profits. We should to raise the lowest wages, and lower the highest ones. We have to return to the saying my father quoted to me a hundred times: “A fair day’s work for fair day’s pay.” No, I don’t think everyone should be paid the same wage. If you earn a lot of money, you have a right to a lot of money. If you earn it. But when Wall Street bosses are paid millions in bonuses for bankrupting their firms, and their political tools in Congress oppose a better minimum wage, that’s plain wrong. It’s rotten. People who defend it with ideology are strapped to a cruel ideology.
via The gathering storm – Roger Ebert’s Journal.