Putting the care back into health

I'm glad to see this issue maintaining traction in the news cycles. In this latest item, Ezra Klein predicts it's only a matter of time before we see some kind of universal health care plan proposed by our lawmakers. He does a good job of tracing the history of how we got into this mess and notes the insurance industry is already on the offensive, deploying their full array of PR pundits to defend their position. Needless to say, the industry's proposals are designed to preserve the status quo under a new name.

In a post I found earlier via Avedon at The Sideshow, Poputonian at Hullabaloo looked at the industry on the microlevel focusing on Indiana's conversion from a state-based system to the current privatized version. The statistics for the state are more than alarming but where the money goes is the real story and it's not going to health care. Poputonian sums it up best with this stellar quote.

You gotta love that invisible hand, working in mysterious ways to create private wealth out of the public good.

He further notes that the profiteers in the Hoosier state who "apparently enjoyed seven-figure gains from some of these private transactions" are Susan Bayh, wife of Indiana Senator and former presidential hopeful, Evan Bayh and the President's uncle Bucky Bush. One wonders how these people can so carelessly sleep at night in their palatial homes, knowing there were built on the backs of 43 million uninsured, hardworking Americans?