I'm getting lots of "million-message" e-mails. A couple from ObamaForAmerica telling me to make a million phone calls to the senate telling them to pass the corporate give-away un-reform healthcare bill. My response to ObamaForAmerica was GiveMeABreak.
Instead of going along silently, I suggest people send a letter, fax, e-mail or make a phone call to both your senators, your representative, and to President Obama, send a letter to your local newspaper telling them that you want the right to be able to buy into Medicare -- regardless of your age. Tell them the proposed Joe the Ho Lieberman Senate bill is a corporate giveaway, and if the Democrats pass it, they deserve to be thrown out of every office they hold in this country.
Last week the Senate briefly discussed the idea of allowing people 55 to 64 to buy into Medicare. Joe the Ho Lieberman, who used to support that idea, came out this week and said he refused to go along with it. Joe the Ho Lieberman apparently got his marching orders from the insurance companies who pay him so much money, and they don't want to let the 55 to 64 crowd out of their grips, because they can charge so much money to people in that group based on the appearance of various age-related health problems. It's a goldmine to the insurance companies. Senior Rape.
Why should Joe the Ho Lieberman get to decide what we, the people, can choose as our form of healthcare? The Senate could vote right now, with 51 votes only, to allow any American to buy into Medicare. Or, as I have previously suggested, start by allowing people over 50, and from the ages of zero to 21, to buy into Medicare. Young people generally are very healthy and inexpensive, so this could be a really good option for parents and allow them to save some money. People over 50, as I mentioned, are the ones who are the most extremely gouged by the insurance companies. Then once those groups are administratively processed, up and running, we could gradually allow other age groups to opt in if they choose.
Anybody who wants to keep their private insurance would be free to do so. You know, -- this is America, we have freedoms, the right to choose. Don't let Joe the Ho Lieberman take that away from us.
I sent a fax to both my Senators, my representative, President Obama, and a letter to the local papers, which read as follows:
I want to be allowed to buy into Medicare. I am willing to pay the fair cost to do so. I understand the insurance companies take 1/3 off the top of my premiums, and that if I am allowed to join Medicare I will save a minimum of 1/3 off my monthly health insurance expenses.
In addition, I understand that by joining the "group" of people in Medicare, I will receive the benefits of group rate discounts, which would be a further savings for me.
I do not care if other people want to keep their private health insurance. That's okay with me. I just wish that the politicians would stop taking bribes from the medical industry and betraying the public.
As I understand, the current Un-Reform bill in the Senate would order 40 million Americans to buy health insurance. At $300/month for each, that would be approximately $140 BILLION per year in new income to the health insurance industry which they, in turn, would pay out partly to doctors, hospitals, and drug companies.
$140 BILLION will pay for a lot of kick-backs and bribes to the politicians who are supposed to represent us. I've got an idea: how about if the politicians stop taking bribes from the medical industry while they are supposed to be representing us, the individuals, the people, the citizens? We need help.
The reform we need is to reduce the cost of healthcare. The current bill does nothing to reduce the cost. It is yet another give-away to the corporations. What Change?
I just got an e-mail from The Progress Report telling me that progressives should support passage of the Senate health-care corporate give-away bill. They claim that it will help. I disagree. Their position is mostly hype and hysteria. They assume that the medical industry will voluntarily lower their prices. It won't happen. The main beneficiaries of this bill are the same members of the Medical Industry who are already making a fortune from the death industry. The bill will pay for all the very poor people who are treated in emergency rooms or hospitals. For most Americans, there are no benefits, and there is a tremendous cost: the cost of paying the health industry industry and the medical industry. We the taxpayers will be paying the uncollectible bills of the medical industry.
Here's my response to The Progress Report. Actually it was in all red, bold and caps when I sent it back:
You're so wrong about this. The Democrats sold us out before the discussion even began. President Obama had secret meetings with the health industry CEOS and promised them that the Democrats would not pass single_payer, would not do anything to cut into the obscene profits of doctors, hospitals, health insurance companies and drug dealers, but would only make silly little meaningless reforms while ordering 40 million Americans to buy health insurance. At $300/person/month, that's $140 billion per year more in income to the corporate medical industry.
For us, for the citizens, we get nothing. No cost controls. No right to import drugs from Canada. No Medicare buy-in for Americans over 50, who are the most likely to have their premiums raised to unaffordable levels, the most likely to suffer illnesses that could be successfully treated but will kill them without healthcare. 45,000 Americans die every year because healthcare is unaffordable. Ordering them to buy insurance is absurd.
It's like saying we can solve hunger in America by ordering people to buy food, solve homelessness by ordering people to go rent an apartment. It misses the central issue: people can't afford to buy it because the providers charge us obscene amounts.
If the bill is passed, the only thing that will happen is that the Democrats will get a ton of kick_backs from the medical industry, their share of the $140 billion per year of taxpayer money given to the corporations, and the Democrats will go around the country campaigning and telling the public that help is on the way, that the Democrats have "reformed" healthcare. They will also refuse to discuss healthcare for the next 10 years, saying we have to wait to see how this bill will play out.
It's a gross insult to the American people to call this healthcare reform. It reforms nothing. It's just another giveaway to the corporations, for which the politicians will receive enormous bribes.
Tell the Democrats to go back and pass a bill allowing Americans to buy into Medicare in stages. Let's say 50 and over are first. 1-21 are next. Then other groups can opt in over time. Pass the bill by reconciliation which only requires 51 votes. If the Democrats refuse to do this, they not only should be thrown out of office, the entire party should be disbanded. We don’t need 2 political parties doing the bidding of corporations. I would say destroy the Democratic party, throw every single one of them out of office, if they fail to provide the American public with real healthcare reform.
Look at it this way. Because of Greenspan and the bankers and wall street and Clinton and Rubin, housing prices were jacked up by 300% because interest rates were held down to artificially-low levels. People now pay 50% of their income in housing, whereas they used to pay 20-25%. Now Americans are expected to pay 20% on top of that for healthcare. That's 70%. 20% for taxes. That leaves 10% of their gross earnings for everything else.
Why not just kill people instead of hacking them to death slowly?
You know when Thomas Friedman said the world is flat? I think he was referring to the corporate bulldozers which are crushing everything in our country and leaving the average person with nothing.
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