I hate even typing the above words. I caught Bill Moyers
the other night and it was like getting hit in the gut with a sucker
punch. When he got to the physician in Nashville, who described on a
flow chart the hundreds of offshoot companies that have formed from the
big three there, I realized we're sunk. The Middle Tennessee area is
home to more than 300 health care companies operating on a multi-state,
national, or international basis, with more than 250 professional
service firms (e.g., accounting, architecture, banking, legal) with
expertise in the health care industry. Nashville-based health care
companies accounted for $46 billion in revenue in 2008 and 310,000 jobs
globally. The
profit-driven system is so entrenched in this country that I'm afraid
it's unbeatable. And the main reason it's unbeatable is that Congress,
both Democrats and Republicans, and the President, are all on the take.
That may not be a polite way to discuss the matter, but it's a fact.
It's like the 'fox in the henhouse' in extremis. Already it's been announced that the pharmaceutical lobby PhRMA will spend with its coalition at least $150 million supporting the Obama-Pelosi-Reid health care legislation. And on August 15 Bloomberg reported
that one of the two advertising companies “selected” to handle the ads
for this massive campaign is the one founded by top Obama Advisor David
Axelrod, AKPD, and that that firm is set to pay Axelrod $2 million, even though he works for the White House, and employs his son. According to OpenSecrets.org these groups put up $484 million in lobbying money
in 2008, getting ready for this legislation. Once the health insurance
industry was given a seat at the table our goose was cooked. I'm not
even sure why Mr. Obama is out there trying to sell it - sell WHAT! If
you saw Michael Moore's 'Sicko,' then you got to know Congressman Billy
Tauzin. He was the Republicans' point man on getting the Medicare
Prescription Drug scam on the books. Everyone was on the take in that
one. Then, shortly after the bill was signed, Tauzin went to work for
big pharma for $2 million a year. And it is Tauzin who has now made
friends with the President, and has gotten his industry a seat at the
table. This is the same guy whom Candidate Obama called a creep.
He said we won't deal with him. Same guy who's now shaking Obama's
hand. Now it turns out that there were secret negotiations between the
White House and big pharma. Pressed by industry lobbyists, White House
officials assured drug makers that the administration stood by a behind-the-scenes deal
to block any Congressional effort to extract cost savings from them
beyond an agreed-upon $80 billion. And one more thing: the President
promised that all negotiations between the government and the health
industry would be on C-SPAN. Not happening. And
probably the biggest obscenity about this mess is that
medicine-for-profit has no interest in THE PATIENT. The only thing they
care about, and are charged by law to try to achieve, is increasing
profits and dividends for their stockholders. That's how all for-profit
corporations operate. But here the poor patient often just gets in the
way of that goal. That's when live-saving procedures get denied, or
patients get dumped from their plans. It's all about the bottom line,
nothing else. And they will spend whatever they need to spend to make
sure that Congress, and the President, are in their hip pockets. The
pharmaceutical industry is now so firmly in the president's camp, it's
developing plans to spend up to $150 million dollars promoting it with
TV ads. And that's exactly the opposite of what Candidate Obama said
during the campaign. Have no doubt: if and when a bill is signed by the
President, the health care industry stands to make more money than ever
before. If you don't think so, then you have had your head in the sand
for the last 40 years.
Oh, the public option. Remember a couple of weeks ago when some 60
Democratic House members stood up and said, "No public option, no
health bill." Remember that. You never heard it again, did you? That's
because Rom Emmanuel told them to sit down and shut the fuck up! And
that was that. Why - because President Obama needs the healthcare
industry's campaign donations to ensure his reelection.
The whole thing, and all the people involved, including the President, are revolting.