Weiner goes all the way, to the heart of the matter, something that my favorite compromizer, Pres. Obama, has been unwilling to do (so far). I say it's time to jettison bipartisanship and own this, Democrats. You're not going to get the Repubs on board without making things worse for our health care system. The problem to a large degree IS the health insurance companies. Partly because there is no real competition (I could choose at most between 2 companies, but what's the difference? They both have the right to disown me if it suits their needs), partly because of natural capitalist greed that works for most things we barter and buy, but not health care (or military).
"Something rather remarkable happened on Tuesday's Morning Joe. Rep. Anthony Weiner of New York pointed out that the health insurance industry has no clothes, and Joe Scarborough, after first trying to spin it some gossamer threads, broke down and said, By God, you're right, this emperor is a naked money-making machine!
Well, he didn't use those exact words, but Joe did seem to finally get that America has granted insurance companies the right to create bottlenecks in the financing of healthcare in order to extract profits out of the suffering of ordinary people--without providing any actual healthcare whatsoever.
"Why are we paying profits for insurance companies?" Weiner asked Scarborough. "Why are we paying overhead for insurance companies? Why," he asked, bringing it all home, "are we paying for their TV commercials?"
Weiner, who recently warned that President Obama could lose as many as 100 votes on a health bill if a public option is not included, really wants single payer--Medicare for all Americans is his goal. What a crazy, way-out, reckless notion, Joe went into their encounter believing. But Weiner asked some simple, direct questions that no politician, much less Obama or HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, has managed to pose:
What is an insurance company? They don't do a single check-up. They don't do a single exam, they don't perform an operation. Medicare has a 4 percent overhead rate. The real question is why do we have a private plan?"It sounds like you're saying you think there is no need for us to have private insurance in healthcare," Joe asked at one point.
Weiner replied: "I've asked you three times. What is their value? What are they bringing to the deal?"
Scraping the bottom of a seemingly bottomless pit of spin, Joe is repeatedly left speechless, "stunned" and "astounded," he said, by the questions themselves. Indeed, when confronted with unfettered capitalism's massive failures, the right usually has nothing to say. The "free market" is supposed to eternally grow, not crash under its own greed. They're left ideologically crippled."
I also must note one of the comments from this article, it's too good & juicy to pass up:
Where are the Christians? Wouldn't Jesus say that the poor & sick deserve health care? Where are the farmers who accept gov't subsidies to not grow crops? Where are the potential entrepreneurs who stay working for "the man", 'cause they're the only ones have reasonably priced health care plans? More to come on that...."To all rightwingers trying to subvert The Nation via neurotic nonsensical diversions ...
You didn't rage when the Supreme Court stopped a legal recount & appointed a President.
You didn't rage when Cheney allowed energy company officials to dictate energy policy.
You didn't rage when a covert CIA operative got outed.
You didn't rage when the Patriot Act took away so many of our rights.
You didn't rage when we illegally invaded a country that posed no threat to us.
You didn't rage when we spent over 600 billion(and counting) on said illegal war.
You didn't rage when over 10 billion dollars just disappeared in Iraq.
You didn't rage when you saw the Abu Grahib photos (except like Rumsfeld to fume that they were ever allowed to be taken).
You didn't rage when you learned we were torturing people.
You didn't rage when the government was illegally wiretapping Americans.
You didn't rage when we didn't nab Bin Laden.
You didn't rage when you saw the horrible conditions at Walter Reed Army Hospital.
You didn't rage when we let a major US city drown.
You didn't rage when the deficit hit a trillion dollars.
But you finally start raging when the government decides that people in America deserve the right to see a doctor when they're ill."
Posted by sloper at 08/21/2009 @ 06:18am
In the meantime, enjoy the Weiner.