There's an important article in The Economist about how Democrats miscalculated badly on health reform.
It's well worth reading. Here's the take home message:
In the case of health-care reform, the Democrats have pretty clearly failed to communicate what their reforms are. It's frankly amazing that after a year-long health-care debate that dominated the mainstream media and blogosphere, many Americans don't seem to know that the Affordable Care Act bars insurers from discriminating on the basis of pre-existing conditions. But this isn't just a superficial public-relations issue for the Democrats. It's the product of a deeper malady affecting the party. Democrats seem to be unable to craft policies that deliver clear results in a fashion which voters can understand and vote on. That's because the policy-making process that takes place among Democratic legislators is so open to compromise, amendment, interest-group giveaways, and bank-shottery that the party's big programmes end up lacking coherence, not just in their details, but in their basic goals and values.
--emphasis added
And may I sadly add, back room deals, giveaways to special interests and campaign contributors all of which results in very defective and grossly malformed public policy.
Yesterday we learned that the number of uninsured in the United States took another terrible turn for the worse.
So let's return for a moment to one of the architects of this man made disaster, Max Baucus. We're now at the toxic intersection of public policy and political manipulation.
Yesterday, in a shameless political sleigh-of-hand, Max placed his own pathetic spin on the shocking numbers of uninsured Americans. This is the guy who has been on the payroll of the insurance corporations for decades. And this public servant and many others conspired to leave the American people at the mercy of this predatory industry.
Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus on Thursday said the "egregious" practices of insurers are largely to blame for the rising number of uninsured Americans, as newly reported by the U.S. Census Bureau.
Did you say, "egregious practices", Max? That's a big word. Didn't hear you say this during the year you spent killing the public option and arresting doctors and nurses, fighting for single payer,the only sustainable solution to the collapse of the U.S. healthcare system.
It's just amazing how amoral these people are. Baucus is on the take for countless years, then he is a central player in passing really rotten legislation, then he bad mouths his benefactors. Of course his insurer benefactors tolerate being pilloried because they got exactly what they wanted and this is how the game is played.
But it's a sad inside the beltway charade which the American people are wising up to. It leaves us at the cruel mercies of the Murder By Spreadsheet industry.
At the end of the day, the rigged game enshrined the insurers at the epicenter of our "reformed" healthcare system. Once PPACA became some sort of law, the power elite takes their masters to task as HHS Secretary Sebilius did early this week, for just doing their corporate job-- raising premiums, shrinking benefits and increasing profits. You can't ask a rattlesnake to be nice and not to bite. When you come in contact with a snake you kill it. But this isn't what the democrats did.
But some Montana voters are beginning to wise up to Baucus. Baucus is out for Baucus and his insurer pals.
Any wonder voters are fucking fed up with this shit!