Obama's Corporate Health Care Scam
By Timothy V. Gatto
19 August, 2009
Countercurrents.org
The health care debacle has gone exactly the way I pictured it would. It seems that every day that passes brings with it a new concession to the insurance companies, the pharmaceutical industry and the health providers. It probably would have been a less painful experience if the government just would have asked these interests to build a health care plan with no governmental interference. There is no doubt in my mind that we would have gotten essentially the same plan.
President Obama claims that “pressure” has forced him to reconsider the “public option”. I’d like to know exactly what pressures have made him rethink that strategy. Obviously the pressure must be coming from inside the Democratic Party because Republicans have no power. I wish he would let us in on exactly who is exerting this pressure. Maybe it is time Americans found out the truth about the Democrats and the Republicans. Let them see that they work to protect and enhance corporate power.
Why would they do otherwise? The corporations pay for the political campaigns. The corporations bring jobs to the areas they represent. The corporations make sweetheart mortgage benefits as in the case of Countrywide and the Senate Banking and Finance Committee. The corporations will make or break a politician in today’s America. The days of politicians representing the people are long gone; if in fact, they ever existed at all.
The rest of the industrial world laughs at the American medical model. When I hear politicians claim we have “the best medical care in the world” I shake my head in wonder. The World Health Organization has a system of evaluating medical care. Some say the model is problematic because it relies heavily on the percentage of government supported programs. Still, it’s the one of the only ways we have to judge health care by nations. Here are the top 50 countries on the list.
1 France
2 Italy
3 San Marino
4 Andorra
5 Malta
6 Singapore
7 Spain
8 Oman
9 Austria
10 Japan
11 Norway
12 Portugal
13 Monaco
14 Greece
15 Iceland
16 Luxembourg
17 Netherlands
18 United Kingdom
19 Ireland
20 Switzerland
21 Belgium
22 Colombia
23 Sweden
24 Cyprus
25 Germany
26 Saudi Arabia
27 United Arab Emirates
28 Israel
29 Morocco
30 Canada
31 Finland
32 Australia
33 Chile
34 Denmark
35 Dominica
36 Costa Rica
37 United States of America
38 Slovenia
39 Cuba
40 Brunei
41 New Zealand
42 Bahrain
43 Croatia
44 Qatar
45 Kuwait
46 Barbados
47 Thailand
48 Czech Republic
49 Malaysia
50 Poland
I have had government-sponsored health care for most of my life. I spent 21 years in the Army and my retirement package included health care. I have had oral cancer and a heart bypass operation. I think that the medical care I received is fantastic. I don’t understand why Americans don’t demand the kind of bill Rep. Dennis Kucinich and Rep. John Conyers introduced, HR676 “Medicare for all”. God-forbid the insurance companies lose money! This is what they said about Obama’s plan and theirs;
“Unfortunately, under HR3200, the Government is choosing winners and losers in the private sector; proposing to spend public funds on subsidizing insurance companies who make money not providing health care. This process will insure only the expansion of profits. Gone is the debate over cost.”
When will Americans stop blindly trusting politicians that openly flaunt their corporate affiliations? The reality is that the majority of Obama’s cabinet (at least the ones that set financial policy, which is most of them) have all at one time or another, worked for Goldman Sachs, the largest corporate contributor of Obama’s Presidential Campaign. Don’t take my word for it, go look it up.
While you are looking things up, find out just how much money Goldman Sachs has invested in our Congressman and Senators. Check out what pharmaceutical firms and insurance companies have donated, and who they donated it too. You can see all the juicy details at www.opensecrets.org, the website for The Center for Responsive Politics.
The politicians try their best to obfuscate the facts and get Americans “wrapped around the axle” with phony charges of socialism and death panels that would determine end of life care. These are scare tactics and unfortunately they work. I had a relative tell me that he doesn’t want to pay for someone else’s medical coverage. The truth is that we end up paying for the people that can’t pay through our property taxes and higher hospital bills. In the end, we all get to pay, and pay and pay and pay. Just for once, can’t we choose our health over the politicians and the insurance companies?
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Tim Gatto's new book "From Complicity to Contempt" is now available from Oliver Arts and Open Press wherever books are sold
