Great headline to a great column, Mr. Hartmann. I was "fortunate" to get SSDI (disability benefits) in 2007 when I was hit by a genetic liver disease (nope, not an alcoholic) in 2005. Yes, I got the benefits - mostly! - but the Medicare part didn't begin till TWO YEARS LATER. Why in the world would I not receive what I needed most - help paying my already growing medical costs? To apply for the benefits, I had to have a diagnosis already - I did, and that took 8 months to figure out. Why is the United States the stingiest country on the planet with healthcare. I have a good friend in Germany who gets visits from his DOCTOR at home when he gets sick, because he is disabled. Mean mean mean.
Do we really just revolve around MONEY AND BRIBES? That is sick sick sick. Thank you for this column today!!!!
Truman tried to get a national health care system going and received tremendous resistance from the American Medical Association, which ran a slick campaign that it was all socialism (or worse). And later when working to get Medicare enacted Johnson ran into the same opposition, including loud criticism from a certain actor turned politician named Reagan. (When it passed the first person signed up was Truman.) I suspect the long term plan was to keep dropping the age of eligibility for Medicare at one end, while raising the years one was eligible at the other, until everybody was covered. But that didn't happen. One would think the examples of Medicare and V.A. services would show that socialized medicine can work, at least for the basics, but somehow that message just doesn't get across to the average American.
"The bribes are so extensive, so widespread, so lavish that President Biden hasn’t yet even seriously brought up the topic of Medicare For All or something like it." ... Pick any issue here... it doesn't get much clearer than this, does it? Thank you, Thom... We are really not represented... It's good to really realize this... & then what? : )
People want to get elected to office to get on this gravy train. The tribalism that is so in play in our politics is that some other group is going to benefit at your group’s expense. The politicians use this us vs. them mentality to keep their big donors happy and the gravy train running.
Since political bribes are legal in America, if I were a sociopathic oligarch I would regard it as probably the most productive investment that I could make. If we outlawed the bribery of politicians, the $438 billion that could be saved (by single-payer universal healthcare during a non-pandemic year) would no longer be extracted by the oligarchs of “healthcare,” and it appears that they are willing to kill 212,000 people a year to make sure they make more profit every fiscal period. So why would they allow Congress to do its job and fund a role model healthcare system? The only way I can see it happening is if those in Congress that are willing to let people die in order to serve their corporate masters are replaced by competent progressives who will serve our citizens' general welfare, and protect us from those who do things adverse to our rights and our communities’ interests (like the assholes in the healthcare industry).
Mr. Hartman is using the term 'Bribery' with respect to the enormous annual monetary, stock tips and favors corporate America's lobbyists 'give' to our elected representatives and senators at the federal as well as at state levels. This is a legal concept with respect to influencing the people who are elected to make financial and moral choices on behalf of the voters; members of both parties are criminally guilty, and morally debased. However, via the Supreme Court and Congress' refusal to define healthcare as an essential 'right' by law and via our constitution, all our elected representatives are happy white collar criminals.
We, the voters, have allowed this system to exist, persist and debase our system of governance. Various laws state that it is unconstitutional to impose term limits on any of our elected officials; however, until we have returned our country to a system of laws we certainly can dumb down our individual voting practices by simply NEVER voting for an incumbent, regardless of which party s/he is from, and regardless of whether the uncertainty of replacements might be worse. UNTIL all politicians realize that voters want SERVICE and ONE TERM and NO PROFESSIONAL POLITICIANS, well the bribery charade will continue.
Mr. Hartman's citation:
According to Open Secrets, the amount spent just last year bribing Congress to keep our healthcare system in place was $689,466,798.00. Almost three-quarters of a billion dollars.
In exchange, the health insurance industry took home $19 billion in profits last year, hospitals took home over $70 billion in profits, and the pharmaceutical industry made similarly huge profits last year: at least $100 billion.
And that was after each of these three industries — that have a stake in keeping our healthcare system as broken and dysfunctional as possible — had handed out billions in compensation to their senior executives and board members. Not to mention stockholder dividends.
So the healthcare industry made out well. Its executives are buying third and fourth mansions in the Swiss alps. It’s lobbyists are enjoying $3000 bottles of wine with dinner. And the politicians it owns are becoming multimillionaires.
Your initial premise is absolutely spot on, your excuses for Democrats far less so. The public option had nothing to do with a national health care program, and as a physician for the past 30 years who has broadcast on health care policy I can tell you the ACA has only exacerbated the lack of access and skyrocketing costs Americans are suffering. Then Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden conducted presidential campaigns lying against a Medicare for All system, complicit in the mortality and morbidity of countless Americans. Biden increased Medicare premiums to launder even more money from seniors' Social Security through the government to private health care insurers. Your diagnosis is only half-right which will nor save a health care system currently in critical condition.
Readers here are always welcome to share any of my articles anywhere, just so long as there's a link included back to the original and credit is given. Go for it! :)
A little clarification if you can. The Open Secrets $$ you quote are from the Senate Office of Public Records. Do the $$ quoted include those to the House? How about to $$ to non federal elected officials?
Great headline to a great column, Mr. Hartmann. I was "fortunate" to get SSDI (disability benefits) in 2007 when I was hit by a genetic liver disease (nope, not an alcoholic) in 2005. Yes, I got the benefits - mostly! - but the Medicare part didn't begin till TWO YEARS LATER. Why in the world would I not receive what I needed most - help paying my already growing medical costs? To apply for the benefits, I had to have a diagnosis already - I did, and that took 8 months to figure out. Why is the United States the stingiest country on the planet with healthcare. I have a good friend in Germany who gets visits from his DOCTOR at home when he gets sick, because he is disabled. Mean mean mean.
Do we really just revolve around MONEY AND BRIBES? That is sick sick sick. Thank you for this column today!!!!
More evidence that the US is a plutocracy, run by corporations and billionaires!
Truman tried to get a national health care system going and received tremendous resistance from the American Medical Association, which ran a slick campaign that it was all socialism (or worse). And later when working to get Medicare enacted Johnson ran into the same opposition, including loud criticism from a certain actor turned politician named Reagan. (When it passed the first person signed up was Truman.) I suspect the long term plan was to keep dropping the age of eligibility for Medicare at one end, while raising the years one was eligible at the other, until everybody was covered. But that didn't happen. One would think the examples of Medicare and V.A. services would show that socialized medicine can work, at least for the basics, but somehow that message just doesn't get across to the average American.
"The bribes are so extensive, so widespread, so lavish that President Biden hasn’t yet even seriously brought up the topic of Medicare For All or something like it." ... Pick any issue here... it doesn't get much clearer than this, does it? Thank you, Thom... We are really not represented... It's good to really realize this... & then what? : )
People want to get elected to office to get on this gravy train. The tribalism that is so in play in our politics is that some other group is going to benefit at your group’s expense. The politicians use this us vs. them mentality to keep their big donors happy and the gravy train running.
Since political bribes are legal in America, if I were a sociopathic oligarch I would regard it as probably the most productive investment that I could make. If we outlawed the bribery of politicians, the $438 billion that could be saved (by single-payer universal healthcare during a non-pandemic year) would no longer be extracted by the oligarchs of “healthcare,” and it appears that they are willing to kill 212,000 people a year to make sure they make more profit every fiscal period. So why would they allow Congress to do its job and fund a role model healthcare system? The only way I can see it happening is if those in Congress that are willing to let people die in order to serve their corporate masters are replaced by competent progressives who will serve our citizens' general welfare, and protect us from those who do things adverse to our rights and our communities’ interests (like the assholes in the healthcare industry).
Mr. Hartman is using the term 'Bribery' with respect to the enormous annual monetary, stock tips and favors corporate America's lobbyists 'give' to our elected representatives and senators at the federal as well as at state levels. This is a legal concept with respect to influencing the people who are elected to make financial and moral choices on behalf of the voters; members of both parties are criminally guilty, and morally debased. However, via the Supreme Court and Congress' refusal to define healthcare as an essential 'right' by law and via our constitution, all our elected representatives are happy white collar criminals.
We, the voters, have allowed this system to exist, persist and debase our system of governance. Various laws state that it is unconstitutional to impose term limits on any of our elected officials; however, until we have returned our country to a system of laws we certainly can dumb down our individual voting practices by simply NEVER voting for an incumbent, regardless of which party s/he is from, and regardless of whether the uncertainty of replacements might be worse. UNTIL all politicians realize that voters want SERVICE and ONE TERM and NO PROFESSIONAL POLITICIANS, well the bribery charade will continue.
Mr. Hartman's citation:
According to Open Secrets, the amount spent just last year bribing Congress to keep our healthcare system in place was $689,466,798.00. Almost three-quarters of a billion dollars.
In exchange, the health insurance industry took home $19 billion in profits last year, hospitals took home over $70 billion in profits, and the pharmaceutical industry made similarly huge profits last year: at least $100 billion.
And that was after each of these three industries — that have a stake in keeping our healthcare system as broken and dysfunctional as possible — had handed out billions in compensation to their senior executives and board members. Not to mention stockholder dividends.
So the healthcare industry made out well. Its executives are buying third and fourth mansions in the Swiss alps. It’s lobbyists are enjoying $3000 bottles of wine with dinner. And the politicians it owns are becoming multimillionaires.
Your initial premise is absolutely spot on, your excuses for Democrats far less so. The public option had nothing to do with a national health care program, and as a physician for the past 30 years who has broadcast on health care policy I can tell you the ACA has only exacerbated the lack of access and skyrocketing costs Americans are suffering. Then Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden conducted presidential campaigns lying against a Medicare for All system, complicit in the mortality and morbidity of countless Americans. Biden increased Medicare premiums to launder even more money from seniors' Social Security through the government to private health care insurers. Your diagnosis is only half-right which will nor save a health care system currently in critical condition.
Great article. May Ishare it on our Democratic website?
Readers here are always welcome to share any of my articles anywhere, just so long as there's a link included back to the original and credit is given. Go for it! :)
A little clarification if you can. The Open Secrets $$ you quote are from the Senate Office of Public Records. Do the $$ quoted include those to the House? How about to $$ to non federal elected officials?
Thanks in advance..