It should be evident by now, even to the hardest to convince, that in these United States, the few control the many. The debate over healthcare in Congress shows that the common citizen's vote can be bought out by powerful interests with lobby money. This is in direct contradiction to the concept of representative government while the well being, wealth, and very lives of many are at stake.
That leaves us with two options, peaceful protest and civil disobedience, or find allies that do have access and use tools such as shown in this brochure and approach business which does has access to the United States government and the legislative process. Many people say we have access through voting, but that just isn’t the case if the representation that vote is supposed to deliver can be bought out by an interest which runs counter to your vote. The sad fact is the people that support single payer are being kept out of the healthcare debate even though they represent the majority of Americans in a poll released this year . That means the wishes of a majority of citizens are not even being considered by many that represent them in government by that data. The reason is they do not have access through the lobbying system of government we have and live under because they do not have the money for their wishes to be considered. Therefore, they are not free in reality to influence their lives through the ballot box in many matters. There is no getting around the fact that today, American government is a pay to play scheme.
There are some healthcare systems in the world that have private insurance that works better than ours. But the case for our "uniquely American" for profit health insurance system is nonexistent if people in this country want a cost effective affordable system that carries everyone. If one looks at the numbers, there is a reason our system is uniquely American and that reason is no one in their right mind in other modern industrialized nations would want one like ours. We are currently ranked 37th by the WHO, 50th in mortality rate , and 29th in reducing infant mortality while spending over twice as much per capita as Canada which is single payer and our health premiums for workers has risen 114% in the last decade. Why in the world do we still have citizens defending the costliest system in the world that yields us a rank mired in third world outcomes? Because they have chosen to believe people paid to lie to them such as politicians paid by insurance lobbyists, rightwing talk shows or television programming, and insurance industry ads and never fact check any of the claims while someone else might be footing most of their premium costs and falsely believe they are always protected by coverage. And why don’t people know there was already a health care proposal on the table in HR 676? Because our "mainstream media "isn’t much better. These are the people that should watch SiCKO which former health insurance executive Wendell Potter said hit the nail on the head. At some point, we as a people are going to have to look at ourselves in the mirror and ask the question, "who are we?" . I doubt the answer will look very pretty.
I prefer HR 676 over HR 3200 or any Senate aberration which may come forward primarily for the reasons given in this video . I do not think a half measure in order to keep the health insurers in the game will work or control costs. I do not think they will allow a true public option that won’t be watered down or be designed to cover anyone who would like to be on it because the insurers would lose their monopoly position and total control of their profit margins. The way they do business is to take in as much as possible while delivering as little as possible which is the opposite you would want in trying to fix the system. I think subsidizing the insurance companies while giving them new customers will not control costs since they are a primary problem when it comes to costs and needed medical procedures. Are we to think that the committee Max Baucus gathered together with the health insurance industry and big pharma and Senators paid to represent their interests is really going to contain costs and deliver medical care efficiently? Will it work like Cheney’s Energy Task Force consisting of oil companies did in controlling the price of oil? I think if they are still in the game calling the shots, they will try to privatize Medicare. And I disagree with DeMint because I think if the current attempt fails; it won’t be Obama’s waterloo but someone else’s. I think this because doing something about healthcare is something people want and Obama can lay the blame of failure squarely where it belongs, at the feet of the Republican Party and Blue Dog Democrats (and some extent on Emanuel). In fact, I think doing it wrong might come closer to Obama’s waterloo in that it could be an albatross hung around the Democratic Party’s neck for a long time to come.
So as I began, I think maybe if we change the minds of someone with access to elected officials, maybe we can change the minds of those in office. While a real public option would be nice, I think moving with HR 676 would be simpler (it’s only a 13 page bill). Something as simple as changing one thing in the way we do business in one industry could be transforming as far as our society goes, both economically, and with our souls as a people. It would ensure a quality of life for our people on par with other modern and prosperous industrialized nations. Wouldn’t it be nice to receive something from our government other than war, debt, and eavesdropping for a change?