119 Million Americans Must be Wrong

119 Million Americans Must Be Wrong

By Robert Parry
June 5, 2009


As the health insurance industry and its defenders in Congress lay out their case against permitting a public option in a reform bill, perhaps their most curious argument is that some 119 million Americans are ready to dump their private plans and jump to something more like Medicare – and that’s why the choice can’t be permitted.

The peculiar argument that 119 million Americans must be denied the public option that they prefer has been made most notably by Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa, ranking Republican on the Senate Finance Committee, which is one of two panels that has jurisdiction over the health insurance bill.

“As many as 119 million Americans would shift from private coverage to the government plan,” Grassley wrote in a column for Politico.com. That migration, Grassley said, would “put America on the path toward a completely government-run health care system. … Eventually, the government plan would overtake the entire market.”

Grassley’s logic is that so many Americans would prefer a government-run plan that the private health insurance industry would collapse or become a shadow of its current self. That, in turn, would lead even more Americans entering the government plan, making private insurance even less viable.

Rarely has an argument more dramatically highlighted the philosophical question of whether in a democracy, the government should represent the people’s interests or an industry’s.


http://www.consortiumnews.com/2009/060509.html


This is the POLL you haven't seen reported in the corporate-press!

This issue, more than any other, is convincing me that our govt is now fundamentally representative of industries more than citizens.

Well, that and the bankster bailouts.

what the public actually wants -- MEDICARE FOR ALL --

And, many here deny that reality.

my employer provides my health insurance. Personally, I intend to keep my group insurance until I retire. At the point of retirement, I will use the public option because I will be retiring "before" I'm able to become a member of medicare. I think a lot of workers feel this way.

Grassley is grasping at straws.

my company just increased our co-pays by 25%. they also stopped covering spouses and dependents. some of the lower paid workers her will probably have to give up coverage for their families because they can't afford the co-pays.

And if you are self-employed, it will cost you at least $600 a month.

Exactly Mr Grassley....

It would remove the leeches from the system and restore health care to millions of Americans.

That is what Americans want. It may not be what you want - a bought and paid stooge for the corporate health care industry - and we know it certainly isn't what THEY want.

But, it is what we want. And, there are far more of us then there are of you.

Your days are numbered. America is mobilizing against you. You will not win.

is fighting against a government public option on health care.

How many days of war each month would we have to give up to provide basic health care for Americans?

Two.. maybe 3 days a month?

The problem is .. healthcare would benefit ALL Americans... not just the Bankers and Politicians.