Sooner or later, someone in charge must realize that anytime government tries to "reform" something, it often makes it worse.
Watergate prompted massive "reform" of campaign financing laws which resulted in the system we have today -- a system where monied special interests control government and the legislation that affects our lives.
The terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, brought massive reform of our national security system, bringing us the new Gestapo-like laws that allow warrantless wiretapping of Americans, confinement without due process and the USA Patriot Act, a heinous piece of legislation that robs all Americans of core freedoms and liberties.
So it's no surprise that the so-called health-care "reform" will bring us an expensive, bureaucracy-laden system that will probably cripple an already staggered economy, drive up health care costs and increase the tax burden on all Americans.
Our government doesn't look at a problem and say "if it's broke, fix it." The approach is more like "if it's broke, let's break it some more and make it worse."
Health care "reform," even if it passes Congress and becomes the law of the land, will be anything but reform. Any chance of true reform was doomed before it started.
President Obama, who campaigned for office on a promise that lobbyists would not even be a part of his government, caved in early to the health care lobby and gave them most of what they wanted, only to see the health care industry turn on him anyway and bombard Americans with high-price propaganda against any change in a system that makes doctors and health care companies rich.
Republicans played along by pushing their own extremes, turning up the emotional wick on abortion and so-called "death panels." Democrats chimed in with on-again, off-again "public option" plans where the only real options allows states to "opt out" if doing so gives them a political advantage.
Meanwhile, the cost goes up, the rhetoric heats up and all reason floats out the window, driven skyward by the not air of political doublespeak.
In the end, all we will have left is a flawed plan that makes the situation worse and, as usual, the best solution would have been to leave it alone.
Real reform is not possible in a governmental system where our elected members of Congress work half-days and spend the other half raising campaign cash from the very industries they are claiming to reform.
Real reform is not possible with a President who promises a government free of lobbyists and then packs his government with the very special interests who control the legislation that Congress "creates" and he then signs.
And real reform will never be possible without a fundamental change in the system that controls government and our lives today.
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Good Rant this morning. Every election has promises of fixing everything that is wrong, locally or federally. Big Daddy will fix everything if the people have faith. Every campaign promise claims tha candidate will fix whatever is the problem. The problem is often the candidate.
The lastest trend is to have faith in a candidate as God has told him/her to run to fix things. The voters will bite and feel they are doing God's work to elect these pious people.
For years the people have acted in their own desire by working as a team to fix the academic standards in their schools, by electing good strong people on the board of education. If this does not work, open a private school. Many at Hughes Aircraft after the Korean War was over, signed up with a couple of Engineers named Ramo and Woolridge who broke away and opened their own company (TRW). Many women who found themselves financially responsible for their families, began to make things at home and sell them as a Cottage Industry. This is how QVC operates.
Had we done more of this kind of thing, Big Daddy would never have grown into the enormous size we find today.
We may have reached the point where Big Daddy is so out of control that Americans will lose all the way around.
I hope many will respond to your Rant as you hit the button here.
Sandy
Health care INSURANCE reform (which is what it is, because PAYING for health care is the problem we need to rsolve) was doomed the moment that the concept of single payer or universal Medicare was abandonded. Any system other than a hub from which funds are distributed is destined for administrative bloat and political hijinks, and ultimately failure.
Health care delivery in this country as it stands now is a better example of a financial model than a health care model. And in that vein, it's a fabulously successful one. We live in a system today where we hope that actual delivered health care will remain within a rough proximity of 'acceptible' as it flails behind the lead of the economic concerns of the insurance companies.
While we all know that effective reform would reverse that order and let health care necessity lead the economic concerns, it's an apocalyptic sign that congress is once again allowing economic interests to head the design team of this "reform".
"Health care delivery in this country as it stands now is a better example of a financial model than a health care model."
$324 to have one tooth pulled, and I had two of then taken out. $648. Two extractions. $400 would have been outrageous. To get all I need done, the dentist told me I'd need to spend $26,000. I don't have anwywhere near that and my "dental insurance" is practically worthless. It might cover $3000 at the most. It must be nice to drive a top of the line Lexus, but why should I alone have to purchase it for him?
Is that the kind of financial model versus health care model you reference?
Kent Shaw
You should be able to argue that it doesn't take more novacaine or nitrous oxide to do more than one tooth at a time and therefore the second should cost less due to less pain killer needed.
Yes, that's exactly the kind of example that shows what a fine financial institution health coverage is today. No doubt your dental insurance company has been receiving monthly payments on your behalf for years, and yet they can limit their expenditures for your benefits so as to maximize the expense/profit ratio. That's an excellent financial model by any corporate standards.
Hi Kent Shaw,
In the event you live near a University that has a Dental School you might consider getting your dental care through them. Folks in the Portland, Oregon area can get their dental care taken care of simply "gratis" to a sliding scale basis; ie., everything from cleaning to extractions and crown work. This is sponsored by the OHSU (Oregon Health Sciences University) Dental School. The purpose is for dentists in training to get the experience they need to eventually run their practice. These procedures are overseen by a fully qualified dentist so it's like you are getting two dentists working on your procedure at he same time.
Another route is to book a flight to Mexico City or one of the interior cities, not border towns and you can get top flight dental care for a fraction of the cost. When you arrive, the airports have professional concierge services to hook you up with whatever your needs might be. A root canal with associated crown work that might cost $1200-1600 per tooth in the U.S. can be had for around $400 U.S. in Mexico etc. So your $26,000 worth of projected dental work might come for as little as $5,000 down Mexico way, plus you'll have had a nice vacation in the sun while having the necessary work addressed.
Many Americans are going offshore for medical procedures due to the mind boggling price increases in this country. Both medical equipment suppliers and the professionals themselves continue to jack up prices. The medical professional blames it on the medical equipment suppliers while if you interface with a supplier he'd blame it on the greedy physicians and dentists. Regardless there are ways to get around the problem. Even with the cost of your passport and the roundtrip airfare it still represents a huge savings. I know retired military people that do this and they are pleased with the quality of work and have no regrets having done so.
Carl Nemo **==
Great info, Carl, thanks!!
Kent Shaw
And yet, Neon, there was nothing on the table as an option from any other source so we will be stuck with whatever pleases the Congress. When we had two prominent parties there could be found two points of view. It got blown away in the Clinton Administration and it will be blown away at this time. We have seen the damage Medicare and Social Security has brought in the way of deep debts. They never were to pay for themselves and when our greedy Congress got them to be used for other programs. Bang! It became another Ponzi scheme.
No, Sandra. They took "single payer" off the table even as the debate began. Guys like Reps. Weiner and Kucinich have the right idea, but are buffaloed by the majority of others in congress whose livlihoods depend on corporate financial support. It's not Clinton's fault - it's the fault of the public, who vote according to campaign ads instead of performance. Lobbyists don't have the power to keep or remove our reps, we do. But our ignorance keeps incumbents in office, and keeps the power in the hands of the big-money special interests which they wield over OUR reps in their own best financial interests.
Any well-written single-payer plan would be funded 100% by increased taxes - taxes that are offset by the savings in monthly health insurance premiums. It's also likely that wages would rise because the insurance costs paid by employers would be returned at least partially to actual paychecks.
Your oversimplification of what has caused our deep debts aside, a single payer plan wouldn't be any Ponzi scheme. But just because our current congress refuses to do it doesn't mean it isn't the best way.
Think of single payer as monopoly price fixing. Basically the government will pay whatever they feel like. Which would result in a system similar to Japan. Doctors get a major lifestyle downgrade.
Service to ones country should not be the path to great wealth. Money has to be eliminated from the process. Character, morality, and commitment should be what gets people elected not the amount of money they can amass for the campaign. I was tought that it is the journalist 's duty to state the problem not solve it, but I wish someone would have the answer. A corrupt system cannot reform itself. Who governs the government, and who polices the police? Where are the Untoucables? How do we fix a system that is obviously broke?
A quote from Russel, an oil company owner who is a contestant on Survivor, "I like making people miserable. They are easier to control that way".
The system is broke. It will not fix itself. The people will have to fix it. Boy, are we screwed. So much for optimism.
The people causing the problem are not the type of people that listen to reason. We have computers, they have Blackwater and Wackenhut. Unless there are people that haven't sold out, there is only one solution to the prloblem, which is what people have been trying to tell me for years, it can't be done without blood, because they wan't it that way.
Which makes one wonder if even Watergate wasn't orchestrated just for this end.
Woody, I'm sorry but I can't buy into the "everything is a conspiracy" theory. The problem is that all legislation carries so many compromises for political reasons that the Rube Goldberg device called laws is nothing but hyperkentic engergy that accomplishes nothing.
Right, event happens, corporate media carries the message, Congress must act, they pass laws that do nothing, no one is punished, it becomes "yesterday's news" to corporate media, the People eventually forget, and it continues to the next event. Government grows, People are crushed under it's weight.
And there is the Spanish-American War, Viet Nam, and the current regional war referred to as "War on Terror"
Once is an aberration, twice a coincidence, three times perhaps we are starting to see a pattern here?
Didn't mention the 1991 Gulf War which was also started via propaganda. What's four propaganda events leading to major conflicts add up to?
Who was the intended audience of the Firdous Square operation involving the statue in Iraq?
I didn't want to believe it either. I was concerned after 2000 and what happened in Florida. After witnessing it in Ohio in 2004 I'll never be the same. There was no denying after that. Because if that was possible, then any thing is possible.
P.S. Didn't Elliot Ness carry a machine gun?
Actually he didn't , he was an accountant , but he still got the job done .
Speaking of accountants, we could use one about now. Where is the audit of the federal government? Where are the lawsuits for failure to carry out fudiciary responsibility?
Eliot Spitzer would have been the perfect guy , but of course he's been removed from the possibility of being a fly in the ointment . As far as lawsuits , where would one start ? Perhaps with the drooling dumbass Reagan , he's dead , maybe Bush one or even better Bush two . Problem is we seem to have a president that isn't interested in prosecuting any of the past administrations vast array of malfeasances and crimes against the country or constitution . You couldn't really make a case that the weak kneed apparent corporate lackey present occupant of the White House is responsible for this horrendous mess we're in , it was handed to him . About your moniker , do you have a strat , just curious , I'm a lover of guitars .
I lost count of how many Strats I have. I also have a Tele, several acoustics, a couple of basses, some hybrids Gibson PAF's on a Strat, etc. I sort of lost control of my senses. Somebody stop me.
I'm envious , I used to have a natural wood strat with a maple fret board , sold it years ago in a moment of stupidity and regretted it ever since . I did the same thing with a cherry red Guild starfire four that I dearly loved , great guitar , rang like a bell , traded that for a car , I'm still kicking myself about those two . I do still have an early 70's black Les Paul custom I've had for years ( it's not going anywhere ) and assorted other musical equipment , Yamaha electric , a couple of keyboards , Epiphone bass , you know the drill . I'm not any good playing them ( a little blues ) but I love the stuff . I had a hunch you might have the same affliction from your name , pretty perceptive huh .
Stick with it. About once a year, I notice I don't suck as much as I used to.
Well DT , your post is pretty much on the mark , but may I take issue with a couple of assertions . The statement "Sooner or later, someone in charge must realize that anytime government tries to "reform" something, it always makes it worse" , not always . A lot of the reforms to the labor laws , trust busting , food and drug rules in the early 20th century and did you forget FDRs reforms of the financial and banking systems in the mid 20th century . The government can do good things with reform , but only if the affected special interests are kept at bay and not allowed to roil the process . The problem with this new so called " reform " is that Obama has invited toadies and lackeys from the very industries he is supposedly trying to reform into the process . In fact for some unexplained reason he has surrounded himself with the aformentioned and appears to be taking their and only their counsel shutting out any advacates of real reform , Robert Reich and Paul Volcker to name but two . There is indeed something rotten in Denmark and there are many opinions as to just what . I am of the mind that we've been had , plain and simple , that Obama is a Trogen horse . His insistence on Geitner , hiring Summers , Rahm Emanuel for chief of staff Mr DLC , republican lite and corporate friendly , constant pandering to the republicans . He seems oblivious to the fact that they and his cabinet picks are the very people that got us into this mess and pretty much ignores his base on all but a few social issues . So , I don't think it's the reform that is often doomed to fail as much as phony reformers .
Somehow Obama is getting us to get along with each other but not with him. We are forgetting we are black and white, rich and poor so no longer as angry and the insurance companies, and rich monopolies, which gives them more power. I agree that the present compromise might end up making health care worse, but elsewhere Russia or China might never have agreed to sanctions against Iran, and the world could have ganged up against the US on economic issues since most everyone believes the US was responsible for the financial meltdown.
RichardKane
There's a pretty good reason everyone believes that , it's true .
Why is the health of the nation a for profit industry ? Examples of not for profit national health care are, the Army, the Navy, the Air Force and the Marine Corps. None of which are for profit, and we wouldn't for one second allow them to become that either. We spend billions yearly on every program out of the pentagon, and all can be classified as defending the health of the nation. So in a real sense we already have nationalized health care.
People freak out over the thought of any socialism, but we are surrounded by it daily, and require it's use. It is not a slippery slope, there is no such thing to a thinking person.
The only thing that is going to save this republic from itself and its corporate masters is publicly financed elections, from the President all the way down to local dog catcher. When politicians are freed from the yoke of having to raise money and be beholden to anyone other than the voters, we will have true public servants. Until then we will only have public self-servants. No matter how much we don't like it. Until then we are easily led slaves to the corporations. Don't believe me ? How long was the line at your local Best Buy the other morning ? Before they opened.