Something must be said about the health care reform debate going on in the U.S. right now, reform that the Democrats are starting to call health insurance reform as to not make people think that the proven inadequacy of the health care is in jeopardy. There is so much wrong with the current system that to try and do all, or even a small fraction of the problems justice would be impossible. So I will resign to understanding that whatever I am about to write in response to the current political climate in the U.S. will fall short, hopefully to be expanded on...
Since the 2008 presidential race, the republicans have been painting Obama as a Socialist. It appears that, in light of his attempts at health care/insurance reform, they were just knowing laying down the ground work to prime their loyalist drones into subversively convincing them that his proposal (a proposal that is not really his since he is taking a back seat to the actual drafting of the thing and "encouraging" members of the Senate to write it up but I'm sure he will have no problem taking credit for it and the Repubs. will have no problem blaming him for it) is in effect a plan to set up a mandate for Federally run health insurance across the board. I have a feeling that the Republicans are making all sorts of wild claims that the auto industry was the first step toward socialism and the health industry the next on who knows what is next, maybe he'll come to your town and take over your small business of 5 or so employees!!! The intentions of socialism are pure ones. Greatest good for the greatest number of people, distributing wealth from the top down. It has only been the one's running a socialist system that have blocked the passage of the financial funnel, if you will, keeping the wealth from being properly distributed. Cold War hysteria has resulted in such a negative view of a socialist ideology, with images of endless overpriced breadlines in Russia, etc. effectively conditioning Americans to think that free market democracy is the only option towards freedom. The Republicans are playing on our fear of that dreaded word of socialism, which is not the same as communism, to exploit the public into unknowingly following their own egocentric agenda. Of coarse, they have had at least the last 50 years or so to perfect this methodology.
The main differences between Dems and Repubs:
Dems = big business, big spending, regulated markets.
Repubs= small business, spending cuts, unregulated markets.
The former ideology was solidified with the New Deal in response to the Great Depression.
The later ideology was solidified with Reaganomics.
To reform health care/insurance is to in effect regulate the market of health insurance. The Repubs. make it sound like they give a damn about the health care coverage that this reform would enact. That is the least of their concerns. If they cared at all about actual legitimate health care performance and efficiency of medical practice, the current system would have been reformed long ago to actually perform in working manner. The ties that politicians have to the FDA and the pharmaceutical industries is staggering. Donald Rumsfeld, to give one healthy example, while Secretary of Defense under George W. Bush held had disclosed, by the man himself, that he held between 5 and 25 million dollars worth of stock in Gilead Sciences, the company with the patent for tamiflu, which is the monopolized treatment for avian flu (bird flu). As a newly appointed public official in Jan. 2001, Rumsfeld was required to break any ties with any businesses that would set up a conflict of interest with his given post. Being the top Security administrator of America, and flu outbreaks are a matter of National Security, one would think that his stocks in Gilead Sciences would be the first thing to go. Long story short, Rummy flat out refused to liquidate his stocks in what was undoubtedly a tangled web of deceitful lies of excuses as to why he was unable or unwilling. With the avian flu scares of the 6 years Rummy was supposed to be upholding the U.S. Constitution, his stock rose more than 800%, from about $7 a share to over $60! Makes one wonder how real those scares were and the cause of the stock prices came from governmental investment of the treatment by purchasing massive quantities in preparation of an outbreak. It would be a relief if this was the only corruptive tie that Rummy had, this list goes on, and on, and on.....
So, if the health insurance companies are regulated with price caps or are hindered by more oversight, than politicians from both side of the isle are bound to not make as much money as they used to in direct payments from the various cronies found in the medical industry. It is business as usual for the Repubs., make it seem like we care about the public with rhetoric proven to be effective in hooking an impressionable, misinformed or uniformed public while the smoke and mirrors are there to protect personal financial interests.
The Repub. and Dem. propaganda machines are in full swing. But all signs of the performance of the American health care system is broken. The Republicans are using Canada's Universal Health Care system as an example what is wrong with such a system. The bottom line though is that people will get treated. They may have to wait longer but in the end they get the treatment, unlike millions of Americans who avoid doctors and treatment because they are uninsured. Insurance companies in the states immediately go into hyper-research-drive once anyone makes a claim. They scour your records to see if anything can be manipulated into looking like a pre-cursor to your current condition, rendering their responsibility to pick up the tab, as it were, null and void. This is another overshadowed concern about the industry itself. It is only trying to insure healthy people, by making in damn near impossible for sick people to afford coverage, or if healthy people who have been paying for insurance services do get sick, denying the coverage outright.
I have focused on the Repubs. for this post because their tactics are more explicit and evidence of such is more widely published. I have no doubt that the Dems. are equally as deceitful and self-interested. After all Obama is a master of rhetoric, we will have to wait and see what is behind it once the noble independent media looks into things. For the record, I like Obama. He is the well spoken, charming and came along at the right time for his historic public crowning. I am enamored with what he has seemed to do for America's international reputation and even if only the smallest amount, helped to ease racial tensions at home. But, I run with the crowd that is eternally skeptical of politicians. The same crowd that may agree that any president of the United States can only achieve such heights by participating in or turning a blind eye to Washington's perpetual corruption.
This post was inspired by the following story and interview reported by NPR, All Things Considered, August 4, 2o08:
Lawmakers Face Hostile Groups at Town Halls
and
Sebelius: Health Care Deeply Personal To Americans
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