Brutal Class Warfare Disguised as Health Care ‘Reform’

[IndianaGreen]

Brutal Class Warfare Disguised as Health Care ‘Reform’

It could have been the opening sketch for Saturday Night Live; all it needed was the “Live, from New York” tagline. But it was coming live from Washington, not New York, and the joke, brothers and sisters, was on you.
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It has been called the most significant reform of health care since the adoption of Medicare in 1965, and the culmination of almost a century of struggle by progressives, liberals and social reformers.

Yes, there has been a lot of hype and hyperbole about the passage of the Affordable Health Care for America Act by the House of Representatives late on Saturday night.

But far from being the single-greatest piece of social reform in decades, this bill, now sitting in the Senate awaiting debate, is a slickly-packaged act of brutal class warfare.

The bill seeks to make it possible for every person to have access to health care. It bans the ability of health insurance companies to deny coverage based on pre-existing conditions, and it prevents them from using other legal tricks to deny people coverage.

What it does not do is prevent the insurance capitalists from using the oldest and most common trick in the book for denying care and coverage: pricing it out of range.

Keeping in line with the “free market” philosophy that has worked so well in recent years (in the housing market, in banking and credit, etc.), an “insurance exchange” is to be set up, which would, in theory, have insurance companies “compete” with each other — or, what is more likely, the companies fix the prices, creating a kind of “sub-prime” health insurance market for poor and working people. For the moment, a quasi-government-run “public option” will also be a part of this “exchange.” (This part may be removed by the Senate before it’s passed.)

http://www.ucpanews.com/index.php/national/75-political-malpractice.html

[debbierlus]

1. Kick Kick Kick RECOMMEND

Thannks for posting!

[OHdem10]

2. It appears this is more Medicare Reform than Health Care Reform.

Health Insurance just the means to reform Medicare.
(that costly program that is breaking the budget.)

[patrice]

3. K + R The ONLY cost-cutting is on HC providers, none on Ins Co

[winyanstaz]

4. K & R....

this is a bad bad bill.....
that is not the only bad part.
We the people are so screwed on this one...and especially the poor and the women.

[anonymous171]

5. K&R. nt

[bvar22]

6. MISSION ACCOMPLISHED !

The DLC New Team

(Screen Capped from the DLC Website)

[bertman]

7. Next we'll be expected to THANK our Democratic party leaders for this sellout.

This makes me sick as hell. Sure am glad I have health insurance (at $10K a year plus $5000 in deductibles (for wife and me) plus copays). And that's after a 33% cost increase for the last two years. Can hardly wait to see how much it costs us in '13.

Rec.

[IndianaGreen]

8. Wait until your health insurance gets labeled as a 'Cadillac' plan

which is an attack on union fought and gained health benefits.

[mbperrin]

14. Yes, that's what will happen to us; we pay around $8000 a year

for two people, but our deductible is $500 each per year. I'm fully expecting to lose it.

We need single payer universal, and we need it now!

[Lasher]

24. This is a betrayal of core Democratic Party principles.

You would think it would be something Republicans would come up with. Well they did and Democrats are facilitating it. What a sellout!

[dflprincess]

13. And they'll wonder why so many voters stay home on election day

once the public figures out how they've been scammed.

[Skittles]

21. aw plenty of DUers think this shit is just A-OK!

we are fucked

[Peter1x9]

9. Best government that money can buy. $$$

n/t

[JohnWxy]

10. Right. This why the insurance industry is so committed to killing the PUblic Option ..

..and this is why the Party of Chaos calls HCR an atttempt by Government to "take over" your health care.

this is why John Boehner and other loyal Corporate Lobbyists have said they'll never let HCR with the public option pass.


this is why there are subsidies to help people buy health insurance. as a method of class warfare.

yeah right.

[tex-wyo-dem]

12. JohnWxy, while I will agree with you that there are some positive aspects to this bill...

For the poor and middle-class, This does not preclude the fact that this same bill is also very favorable to the for-profit insuance industry. In fact, its better than the status quo for them in some ways.

The cast of far RW characters that you point out who are fighting against any public option, are bought and paid for to do just that -- using an age old tactic of pushing as hard right as possible with the intention of bringing the point at which the legislation will fall as far in their direction as possible. Any concessions at all will look like compromise. This tactic has largely worked. This is what the insuance companies paid for in dumping $millions into lobbying efforts.

This same tactic should have been used by the progressives, from the perspective of pushing hard left, from the very beginning -- insist on full single payer, or at the very least, true Medicare-for-everyone (Part E) reform...and never let up with the intention of pulling the legislation further in our direction.

Another tactic the RW pulled-off much better than the progressives, was to create a (albeit, contrived) "populist" movement with the Teabaggers (undoubtably paid for in large extent, by big lobbying money). The Progressives should have energized a true grassroots movement of similar or bigger scope, but it really never happened.

[JohnWxy]

19. agreed. I was shocked that Pres. Obama started OUT with the compromise position.

And I was criticized by some for criticising Obama on this point. (Then, he even went further, but let's not even talk about that.)

Yes, none of the bills being considered are far from being perfect pieces of legislation. (And, it's not what we'd see if I could have MY way.) But look at the battle we are having with the insurance industry and their lobbyists (GOP) just to get one of these bills considered. And HCR is still very much in doubt (even in it's present compromised form).

I admit to being willing to compromise in order to at least get SOMETHING (as long as that 'something' is a REAL something and worth it). I recognise that will put me in the line of fire from some people. GUess it comes with the territory. But I certainly respect there opinion and sincerity.

I have emailed and called people on the Hill to reiterate that any of these bills without the Public Option is NOT HCR, "No subsidies without a Public Option" has been my mantra. I have said to my Senators and my representative that if they can't get the Public Option they should let this die, and advised them that the country would realize the Democrats didn't fail, but that the Republicans and Blue-dog Democrats killed it. And I think the voters will make them pay for killing it.

[rapturedbyrobots]

23. that's because its YOUR compromise position

NOT his. he campaigned as a neoliberal. this is pure neoliberal market bullshit. i don't know why anyone would expect him to start from anywhere else. he LIKES the idea of the insurance companies. he just wants them kept honest by the magical hand of the market, like all neoliberal dreamers. no way in hell obama would EVER support single payer. its entirely counter to his chicago school training.

[Joe Chi Minh]

11. That David was one class-warrior, trouble-maker!

'Why, O Lord, do you stand afar off?
Why do you hide yourself in time of trouble?

In his arrogance the wicked man hunts down the weak,
who are caught in the schemes he devises.
He boasts of the cravings of his heart;
he blesses the greedy and reviles the Lord.
In his pride the wicked does not seek him;
in all his thoughts there is no room for God.
His ways are always prosperous;
He is haughty and your laws are far from him;
he sneers at all his enemies.
He says to himself, "Nothing will shake me;
I'll always be happy and never have trouble."
His mouth is full of curses and lies and threats;
trouble and evil are under his tongue.
He lies in wait near the villages;
from ambush he murders the innocent
watching in secret for his victims.
He lies in wait like a lion in cover;
he lies in wait to catch the helpless;
he catches the helpless and drags them off in his net.
His victims are crushed, they collapse;
they fall under his strength.
he says to himself, "God has forgotten;
he covers his face and never sees."

Arise, Lord! Lift up your hand, O God,
Do not forget the helpless.
Why does the wicked man revile God?
Why does he say to himself,
"He won't call me to account?"
But you, O God, do see trouble and grief;
you consider it to take it in hand.
The victim commits himself to you;
you are the helper of the fatherless.
Break the arm of the wicked and evil man;
call him to account for his wickedness
that would not be found out.

The Lord is King for ever and ever;
the nations will perish from his land.
You hear, O Lord, the desire of the afflicted;
you encourage them, and you listen to their cry,
defending the fatherless and the oppressed
in order that man, who is of the earth, may terrify no more."

COMMIE, pinko shepherd boy!

[Lorien]

15. I read variations of this all over Facebook today-from my Liberal friends

"We've been hosed" "it's all bullshit-the corporate takeover is complete" "WHAT "CHANGE"?" were just a few of the comments from many of the non DUer Democrats I know. The final bill had better not resemble the piece of garbage that's in the Senate right now, or our party will lose more than half it's base. Voters are paying far more attention than our reps want them to.

[lonestarnot]

16. One more shock and awe, how much more will they take?

[IndianaGreen]

17. and instead of a real public option, we are getting a Public Option In Name Only

brought to us by DINOs and the corporate wing of the Democratic Party.

[Atticus]

18. New term---credit Indiana Green:

"POINO" (public option in name only)

If the DINO's pass this POINO, we'll be SOL!

[Andronex]

20. never mind that...

...did you hear the latest on Glen Beck and tea baggers, blah blah blah, aren't they morons, and somebody made a racist comment on Obama somewhere in America, let's focus on that instead...

The so called left is as much controlled as the right in America, while our attention is being diverted to pointless wedge issues, dividing Americans when instead we should be finding common ground, the corporate noose is getting ever tighter around our collective neck. We are being managed guided in the "proper" direction by the mainstream media and include the young turks and Oberman in that equation.

[seeinfweggos]

22. sadly

it is both an example of how much power corporations have in america AND "the most significant reform of health care since the adoption of Medicare in 1965."

unfortnately, that is where we are - took decades to get here, but here we are