The so called Baucus Bill should be called the Insurance Company Subsidies Act. It was largely written by lobbyists for the health insurance industry. As Bill Moyers reported on Friday, Max Baucus's last two assistants on health care were/are lobbyists for Wellpoint, a health insurance company.
BILL MOYERS: Take a close look at that woman sitting behind Montana Senator Max Baucus. He's the Democrat who's the Chairman of the Finance Committee. Liz Fowler is her name. And now get this. She used to work for WellPoint, the largest health insurer in the country. She was Vice President of Public Policy. And now she's working for the very committee with the most power to give her old company and the entire industry exactly what they want: higher profits, and no competition from alternative non-profit coverage that could lower costs and premiums.
I'm not making this up. Here's another little eye-opener. The woman who was Baucus' top health advisor before he hired Liz Fowler? Her name is Michelle Easton. Why did she leave the Committee? To go to work -- where else? -- at a firm representing the same company Liz Fowler worked for WellPoint. As a lobbyist. LINK
So the health insurance lobbying organization AHIP has spent months writing a sweet deal that turns what was supposed to be health care reform for the people into a $500 BILLION payola scam and amazingly, a law FORCING people to buy their crappy "product".
Then, seemingly out of nowhere, just before the bill is guaranteed to pass in the Finance Committee, AHIP releases a bogus report and declares their opposition. What is that all about?
What that's all about is giving Democrats cover. You see, the greatest threat to the Democrats in this whole health care charade is not that Republicans will say mean things. It's that progressives will revolt when they realize that their party leaders have completely sold them out.
One of the biggest indicators that the Democrats have sold us out is how much the insurance lobby and the wall street bankers they work for like the bill. After all, the people are smart enough to know by now that what's good for wall street bankers and what's good for them are not the same.
So with this little PR stunt, Democrats get to pretend that the Insurance lobby just HATES this Baucus bill that gives them a natural monopoly and a half a trillion dollars in free money.
This is not to say that the insurance companies would like to get an even better deal. But this is all lowering expectations. Your expectations. The idea is to get them so low, that even the Baucus bill sounds good when their done. And of course it must be since the insurance companies hate it.
The biggest con of all though is the lie that Republicans have anything to do with reform. The Republicans are completely out of power. Their party is in shambles. They have no relevance here at all.
But for their use as an excuse by the Democratic thug leadership in the Senate to kill real reform. This whole charade has been about trying to convince the Democratic base who voted for real reform in the last election that real reform isn't possible with these obstructionist Republicans.
This is the game they always have played, so it's natural that they would try it now. Problem is, now it is simply ridiculous. This battle has always been about Democrats and Democrats only. The Republicans have never been so marginalized as they are now.
So the game now is were supposed to think the Insurance Company Subsidy Act is actually good and that we're lucky to get it because those Republicans are so obstructionist.
It's a con. A con by criminal thugs who would rather let children die from lack of coverage than upset their cash cow.
I for one will oppose any plan that includes subsidies for the murderous health insurance industry and/or requires Americans to buy their ripoff scam plans.