National health insurance for all - Updated
I know a lot of people became angry with Corrente during the presidential campaign and have avoided the site, if not mocked it bitterly ever since. But when it comes to single payer, national health insurance, Lambert owns the issue and he's doing some terrific work on it. He finds some hope in the latest developments inside the Beltway and looks at the obstacles. But the proposal is anathema to many insurers, employers and Republicans. They say the government plan would have unfair advantages, like the ability to impose lower fees, and could eventually attract so many customers that private insurers would be driven from the market. "The public plan option is a terrible idea — one of our top concerns in the health reform debate," said James Gelfand, senior manager of health policy at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.The short answer to that question is it's all part of the master plan for the cheap labor conservatives. Anything that helps the working class is an anathema to that plan.
Why would employers object to a public plan that would be better and cheaper for their workers?
Update: Corrente bloggers Lambert and Chicago Dyke check into comments to remind me that many of their bloggers have contributed to their health insurance series, including DCBlogger and also they've been doing a lot of fine work on the investment banker bailout. As an aside, I'd note I hadn't put them on the blogroll because I've thought of them as an A-list operation but I've been meaning to add Chicago Dyke to the Atriot list for a while now and will do so today so you can easily check over for their latest posts.
[More posts daily at The Detroit News.]
Labels: Corporatocracy, health care, policy
posted by Libby Spencer at 4:16 PM
9 Comments:
Hi Libby, maybe these cheap labor conservatives should - http://www.forbes.com/2009/01/22/china-health-care-markets-econ-cx_twdd_0122markets04.html - take a cue from China. They want to expand basic health care to 90% of the population in order to stimulate the economy:
"It's not a bad idea for the government to provide health insurance for the population, so people don't have to save as much money for the rainy days. They feel that they are taken care of. So they'd be more willing to spend the money and stimulate the economy," said Hong Kong-based Tai Fook Research analyst Paul Lee. China has an unusually high savings rate, given its rate of its economic growth.
Of course, they'll see this as just a crazy idea from a communist country and discard it as unthinkable. In the meantime, the Chinese people will get universal health care before us.
(For some reason, Blogger wouldn't let me use "blockquote" or code to the link I provided.)
Hey Kathy,
Nice to see you. Thanks for the link.
CEO's of the major car companies have seen the light. A sensible national health insurance policy takes the burden of employee insurance expense off business. It's a no brainer. But as usual, the right will make up bogeymen to delay this from becoming a reality soon. But it has to come. And it will.
If it's ever going to happen, now will be the time I think Truth.
thank you for the kind words, Libby. Lambert would agree, i'm sure: it's not just him, it's a whole mess of folks at corrente who've been doing good work on the health care issue. i'm also pretty proud of our stuff on the banking disaster. thanks again for the link.
-chicago dyke
What CD said. A lot of the credit on single payer and health care generally should go to one of our contributors, DCBlogger. But we like to think that we're no slouches on the financial crisis, either. Check it out, since there's a wealth of material there. For example, everybody's all upset now because of $18 billion in bonuses for Wall Street. But did you know that $70 billion of the first $350 billion tranche also went for salaries and bonuses, right after TARP was passed back in October 2008? Didn't think so.
Hey ChiDy. Thanks for stopping by and you're more than welcome. I know you do more than single payer over there but that's so outstanding that I wanted to highlight it.
Lambert, also thanks for stopping by. I do actually know that they gave out bonuses almost immediately and other shenanigans like their lavish conferences under the first TARP and have been blogging about the lack of accountability and pure arrogance of the investment bankers extensively since they handed over the cash. I do most of those posts at DetNews where I think it will it reach the most diverse readership. But I will update the post to reflect your other work and expand the credit for the single payer stuff.
Hey, any time you want to cross post, mail me for an account. I'm not a notably rapid administrator, so mail is best...
Thanks for the offer Lambert.
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