As a nation which likes to take the mantel as the leading democracy in the world, and often as the world’s conscience (if you can forget Abu Grahib and the unnecessary wars) and policeman (151 bases in 73 other countries, I have been told), how come we still rank 37th among industrialized nations in health care, 25th in child mortality, and still spend more than twice as much as any other civilized nation on our health care?
    Because our system “sucks,” to put it crudely, and because our legislators — Senators and members of Congress are frequently more afraid of not being re-elected than they care about their constituents, the voters. They are subservient to lobbyists, and the billions of dollars that flow into their election coffers from those lobbyists, the health care industry, pharmaceutical companies, and the plethora of vultures who feast on the carrion which is the ordinary citizen.
    I was hoping that the President would put the leaders of Congress against the wall and demand that they not take their August vacation until they had passed a health care bill that promised care for every American, at the least a public option, and even better, single payer coverage like so much of the rest of the world enjoys. But the President chose the “diplomatic” way of dealing with Congress although I would have preferred that he speak less softly and carried a big stick.Â
    Statistics indicate that 14,000 Americans lose their health care every day — an alarming and frightening figure. While Congress is off in August, enjoying their “vacations” (and raising re-election cash to hang on to their regal status in our society), thousands will die from lack of adequate health care. That alone should mandate that Congressional leaders, at the urging of the President, withhold that summer break unless and until the health care crisis it solved. Clearly, the overwheming percentage of voters opt for single payer; it’s a question of the good of the majority versus the obscene profits of a small, monied minority. It’s a matter of conscience and morality.
    You have heard all the lies and the fear mongering — there will be long lines at the doctors, you’ll have to wait for necessary services, small businesses will go bankrupt (excuse me, have you noticed what’s happening to small businesses?), the wealthy cannot bear another 1% tax on their substantial incomes, and on and on. Frankly, it is absolute bovine excrement (B.S.). And it’s fed by a system that is pouring $1.5 million A DAY into advertising which is at best misleading, and at worst, more B.S. And while we no doubt have the best medical care available in the world, other nations with single payer or similar systems do not suffer the horrors that we have been led to believe. I’ve spoken with people from many nations, including six in the last month, and the fairy tales don’t hold water.
    These same people who talk about a trillion dollars cost over ten years — many of whom have been in Congress during the whole of the last administration — where were they and how did they vote on the money for the Iraq war, which caused the spiral of our economy into near disaster? That’s a trillion dollars there, and continuing at millions every day. And where were they, where were their voices on the Halliburton no-bid contracts, or calling for an investigation when $9 billion in cash suddenly disappeared. These people have no right to have a voice at this table.
    FACT: Every member of Congress and every Senator earns a salary of $172,000 a year, plus staff fees, plus office expenses, plus other emouluments if they are senior members, or for committee chores, etc. And that’s paid by US, the taxpayers.
    FACT: Every member of Congress and the Senate has their choice of about ten (10) different health care plans — that start on the first day of their term, and are offered regardless of pre-existing conditions — and 72% of the cost of those plans is also borne by US, the taxpayers. And it includes drug and pharma costs as low as $5 per prescription. Thus, WE, the taxpayers, not only pay their salaries, but three-quarters of their health care and drug costs! There is one Senator who pays all of $209 a month for this gold plated coveragte. Let’s see how many of them would continue to opt against universal health care if they were cast into our lifeboat.
    FACT: Emergency room care is far more expensive than regular medical care, and yet that is where many uninsured and even underinsured have to go for treatment. It adds horrendous costs to medical care, and if you speak of where is a trillion dollars going to come from to pay for revisions in our medical care in the next decade, you can start right with savings in the emergency rooms. They should be for true emergencies, and not to treat people who have waited too long with illness because they have been unable to pay for it. Preventative care, as well, which would be written into the new-vision health care, would likewise save huges amounts of money and would lead to a healthier America able to take essential and necessary steps to prevent conditions which spiral into astronomical costs down the road.
    You hear a lot about “Blue Dog” Democrats — the ones who are in the opposition because they are “financial watchdogs” claiming we can’t afford the expense of this coverage for all. I’ve heard them more aptly described as “Blue Cross” Democrats, which is much more appropriate — they support all that’s wrong with the system, with no regard for anything except their own re-elections. The health care of the Veterans’ Administration is stellar and much less expensive than it is for the average citizen; Medicare runs on less than 4% administrative costs when the average insurance company-HMO-health care system runs as high as 30%. Why is the V.A. able to negotiate the cost of drugs, to lower the expense, and yet under the last administration, that same right was denied to the rest of us? It’s just indicative of the corruption of the existing system.
    As a senior citizen, I’m still working because I can’t afford not to — the cost of health care would be the end of my “golden” days. And 53% of bankruptcies in this nation arise because of people who are driven into poverty by health care costs. Yet executives in health care companies retire with as much as Dr. Maguire of United Health, a $1.8 billion (yes, with a B) golden parachute. That money, those bonuses and boondoogles should be going into patient care, research, development, and not to line the pockets of overpaid administrators of a broken system.
    How come we don’t hear more about the health care that Congress is provided with? Because it’s one of their dirty little secrets that they don’t want you to know. Senator Max Baucus of Montana, who wouldn’t even let single-payer representatives testify before his committe hearing, has received more from the health industry and big pharma than any other member of Congress. That’s why I called for him to be cast out of the Democratic Party several months ago. And I renew that call, even though he purports to have modified his stand. Not only that, the same principle applies to all those other purported “Democrats” who have supped at the largesse of the corporate healthcare predators, and who now suddenly express hesitancy in the face of the party platform, which in reality means campaign contributions.
    I understand the Republican opposition — they don’t give a damn about the poor and the middle class, the minorities and the needy, and they make no bones about it. They represent the monied interests of this nation, and if they had their way, would drive us into a society of royalty and the peons, and right back into the Middle Ages. At least they’re up front about it, voting against everything progressive move, kneeling before the gun lobby, railing about no new taxes while they support a war whose costs were hidden, whose toll was both human and economic, and who, in the words of their leader and seer Rush Limbaugh, “hopes Obama fails.” If Obama fails, we all fail, and so does this nation. It’s that simple.
    The naysayers can’t deal with the truth, can’t deal with progress and far-thinking leadership which, over a long a painful decade, may pull us out of this morass. They can only oppose every item brought up by the current administration, or find reasons to attack administration appointments and ideas. But I digress.
    Should a member of Congress or the Senate, who has taken tens of thousands, and in some cases hundreds of thousands of dollars in contributions from an industry such as health care, then be able to vote on issues affecting that same industry? Under current rules, they do. But isn’t this a blatant conflict of industry? Do you vote against the hand that feeds you, that keeps you in office? Inevitably, they don’t, and that feeds into the improprieties which guide our health care.
    There is only one solution this year and in the next election — to any member of Congress who votes against the reforming of the health care system, whether Republican or Democrat, who opposes the public option, or hopefully single payer, and that solution is TTBO. Throw the Bums Out!
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