I've long since had it with the insurance companies. My family's dealt with their crap forever, what with half of us being walking pre-existing conditions. But then I saw this headline on rawstory.com:
Healthcare industry spending $1.4 million - a day - on lobbyists
...You've gotta be kidding me. You have got to be frakking kidding me. And the opponents of a public option are screaming about wasteful spending?
Let's do some simple math to show how much wasteful spending an average of 1.4 million dollars a day is...
Okay, let's start out with 1.4 million a day.
That's $1,400,000 a day.
A year = approximately 365 days.
$1,400,000 x 365 = $511,000,000
So that's $511 million - which means that in a year, the healthcare industry spends - on average - half a billion dollars on lobbying.
Now, let's look at the last 8 years under George W. Bush. We know a year = $511 million, so let's multiply that by 8:
511,000,000 x 8 = $4,088,000,000
And let's just double-check our numbers to be sure:
365 x 8 = 2,920
So 8 years = 2,920 days.
2,920 x $1,400,000 = $4,088,000,000.
Yep, that number is correct - meaning that in the last 8 years under Bush, the healthcare industry spent 4.088 BILLION dollars on lobbying alone. That's 88 million dollars more than Chrysler got in bailout money on Jan. 3rd.
That's approximately 20% of the 19.8 billion that was approved for Post-Hurricane Katrina recovery. Hell, that's $488 million more than was alotted for just levee repair in that recovery package.
EDIT: And as DWG reminded me in his comment, all that lobbying money? Guess where it comes from? All those uber-inflated health insurance premiums that we, the American people, are struggling to pay!
The really sad - but not unexpected - thing is, that same report shows the industry shelling out to both Republicans and Democrats in Congress... I haven't the time to read the whole thing, but at a glance it seemed the donations were pretty much as I expected - nearly even-handed, but with a bit more money thrown towards the Republicans - but whatever the case, it's still infuriating beyond belief.
Couple that with this under-reported story from Wednesday (emphasis mine):
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A nationwide health insurance exchange that includes a Medicare-like government option could save $1.8 trillion more than if only private plans are offered, a prominent private U.S. health policy group said on Wednesday.
And I - I just - this is insane. The people whining about "more wasteful spending" can just go to hell. Just go to hell. This crap needs to end. If I had my way, for-profit healthcare would've been illegal a long, long, long, long, long time ago. Get these goddamn corporate pigs OUT of this industry, NOW!