Health Care Deform

Health Care Deformed

Just how powerful are the medical-pharmaceutical-insurance special interests that oppose health care reform? More powerful than ever, and their power grows daily.

During the Clinton administration these special interests were able to squash attempts at health care reform as if the President and First Lady were as insignificant and powerless as gnats. Their power grew.

Under the corrupt leadership of George Bush, the special interests crafted health care reform legislation that expressly prohibited Medicare from negotiating drug prices with the pharmaceutical companies. This, according to the US House of Representatives, Committee on Government Reform, caused pharmaceutical industry profits to soar by over $8 billion in the six months after January 1, 2006, when the Medicare drug program went into effect.

Recently, President Obama called “health care reform the single most important thing we can do for America's long-term fiscal health. That is a fact.”

And now, in spite of that fact, he is backing away from the single payer option, the ONLY possible solution to this fiscal meltdown.

Senator Dick Durbin (D-Ill) recently said of the banks…"these are still the most powerful lobbies on Capitol Hill. And frankly, they own the place.” The same can be said of the lobbies for the medical-pharmaceutical-industrial complex. That is how powerful these special interests are.

Is it becoming clear to me that the only thing, I repeat: THE ONLY THING, that will get Americans the health care reform we need to prevent, not only individuals and families, but small and large businesses, municipalities, cities, states and the US government from going bust is the kind of mass public demonstrations of the Anti-war and Civil Rights Movements and those that are happening in Iran as we speak.

Nothing short of that will get our corporate-owned politicians to do the work of the people over the interests of the medical-insurance-pharmaceutical industrial complex.

To believe anything else flies in the face of the 100 year history of health care reform and is to live in a fantasy.

Putting the Health Crisis in Perspective

Putting the Health Crisis in Perspective

The most daunting challenge to our economy is health care spending.

This was confirmed by President Obama in his April 14th, 2009 speech at Georgetown University:

“…our long-term deficit is a major problem that we have to fix. But the fact is that this recovery plan represents only a TINY fraction of that long-term deficit…the key to dealing with our deficit and debt is to get a handle on out-of-control health care costs.”  

Perhaps for the first time, Americans will begin to comprehend exactly how big of a health crisis we have and what a threat it poses to our economy, federal-state and local governments, industries- large and small, families, individuals, and even our national security. 

Another article that appeared in Rolling Stone Magazine: The Big Takeover, may add needed perspective.

“The latest bailout came as AIG admitted to having just posted the largest quarterly loss in American corporate history — some $61.7 billion. In the final three months of last year, the company lost more than $27 million every hour. That's $465,000 a minute, roughly $7,750 a second.”

That, admittedly, is a lot of money, and we are outraged that we have to pay for it!

But, in 2008 America spent $2.4 trillion dollars on health care. That is $600 billion per quarter. Following Rolling Stone’s math: that is $6.7 billion per day, $278 million every hour, $4.6 million a minute or $77,161 per second!

But wait, health care costs are projected to reach $4.3 trillion dollars by 2017, an astounding $138,890 per second!!

How can that be? 

There are many reasons but it boils down to this: health care is a huge for-profit business having generated $2.4 trillion dollars in 2008 with projected 80% growth over the next 8 years to $4.3 trillion dollars. Heath care is now the largest sector of our economy and the most powerful political presence in Washington.  

The medical-pharmaceutical-insurance industrial-complex is successfully marketing and selling sickness to an unlimited, expanding, willing, and increasingly sick population. From their perspective, there is nothing to ‘fix.’ In fact, like any other business, they are only looking to expand their market.

While a single-payer system may help by shedding some of the massive administrative costs and trimming waste, it will not solve the fundamental problem driving the costs: the never-ending growing market of sick people and their addiction to, and demand for, care.

(In my next blog entry I will offer some solutions to the Health Crisis)