How the Democrats sold out health care reform

How the Democrats sold out health care reform

Why backroom deals with the health insurance industry bosses could be called a genuine bipartisan effort.

August 18, 2009

THE RAUCOUS right-wing protesters who have stormed congressional town hall meetings have thrust the debate over health care reform into the 24-hour news cycle. As a result, the effort to overhaul the U.S.'s broken health care system has become bogged down in a surreal discussion about "death panels," forced euthanasia and Big Brother government.

In this respect, the town hall meetings have the feeling of a reality show being acted out far from where the real "debate" is. And that is in the back rooms of the White House and the Congress where health industry "stakeholders" are really shaping the policy.

To understand this, Chad Terhune and Keith Epstein's August 6 BusinessWeek cover story, "The Health Insurers Have Already Won," provides essential reading. In it, Terhune and Epstein describe how the major health insurance companies, such as UnitedHealth and Aetna, crafted a sophisticated and strategic approach to shape health care reform to their liking.

Oriented primarily on the so-called "Blue Dog" conservative Democrats, this strategy isn't simply based on the crude legalized bribery by which industry lobbies buy off politicians in exchange for campaign contributions.

In fact, the industry has used its power to provide expertise and research to congressional staffers to assure that it has a major role in determining the problems that health reform is meant to address and the solutions that are being proposed. Pro-industry research is driving the reform debate in Congress, and the end result will be a health care bill with an industry seal of approval on it.

http://socialistworker.org/2009/08/18/how-the-democrats-sold-out-health-care

website and share? :eyes:

:puke:

They start with a false premise, so I'm not interested.

Have a nice day! :hi:

in the first part of the book, after the apocalypse...

business week is bad
indianagreen is bad
narrow it down some more

pom pom squad these days. It's really not much of a debating technique if you're trying to win people over to your point of view.

Now, IG and I have mostly disagreed with each other over the years, and her solution to this health care mess probably isn't mine - but this is a huge issue that is going to impact all of our lives - different points of view are important when making a decision as important as this one.

With all those posts of yours, maybe you could come up with one the counters the arguments in the article?

They don't have the courage (aka balls) to come out of their closets as greedy elitist corporatists - so they give lip service to the liberal wing of the party while stabbing them and the public in the back

outnumbers those who claim to be "blue dogs" or "DLC" as well as the corporate GOP, WHY do these gutless corporate conservatives (both parties!) get to have THEIR WAY or nothing gets done?!?

Why is it when our democratic representative NUMBERS greatly favor "a public option" that we fold like a cheap suit to the Corporate Democrats? :grr: :thumbsdown:

Published on Friday, August 21, 2009 by The Real News Network

Obama's PhRMA Deal

Smith: Obama's strategy was to vilify the drug companies and then cut deals with them in secret

The unlikely union of Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America or PhRMA and the White House has many wondering about the true nature of this partnership. Especially taking into consideration the powerful lobby’s opposition to any kind of health care reform for years. The Real News spoke with Donna Smith, Community organizer for California Nurses Association, about drug industry's possible impact on the final legislation.

http://www.commondreams.org/video/2009/08/21-1

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lo65AG_5ZWM&eurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww%2Ecommondreams%2Eorg%2Fvideo%2F2009%2F08%2F21%2D1&feature=player_embedded