( - promoted by kindler)
(Author's note: I have seldom been as angry as I am at the exploitation of the sick and the senseless profiteering at the expense of the sick, which apparently is unfettered in the proposals of the "Blue (Cross) Dogs." I will strike a more optimistic and constructive note tomorrow. But today, here goes...)
Today, I am going to single out Senator Mark Warner because his recent behavior is symptomatic of the "representation" we've got in Washington. We are essentially increasingly punished at the hands of Blue (Cross) Dogs (BCD), who were hired by us to bring about meaningful change. These BCD will, apparently, go to any lengths to stop progress on health care reform. Besides inflicting the pain of obstruction, they insult us with creative word-smithing, empty rhetoric, and-well, pure nonsense. And, thus, they insult and demean the citizens they purport to represent. |
| In letters to a number of constituents, Senator Mark Warner keeps telling us precisely the same words, code-language and spin that health insurance companies do. He doesn't even humor us with a direct response to our specific concerns or convey that he really gives a damn about real health care reform, as opposed to, say, protecting insurance companies and hospital chains. Otherwise, he wouldn't keep using terms like "government run health care" in correspondence, when we are not calling for that; "single payer," when most of us are asking only for a government insurance option; "expanded coverage" alone, when we want an end to insurance denial and cancellation as well. Who, exactly, is writing his scripts, anyway?
If the junior Senator from Virginia gave a damn about representing us, he wouldn't tell us we want "competition" (Warner style) no matter what we tell him we want, the way he has done more than once to one of our BC bloggers. You know, plant words in our mouths , as if we are too dumb to have a real thought in our heads. No, we need Mark Warner to tell us what to think. 72-76% of the American people want health care reform (insurance which is affordable, non-cancelable, and undeniable) with a public option. But Mark Warner seeks instead to change their minds for them. This is representation turned upside down. He goes "home"over the break to "talk" to constituents and persuade himself that he knows what is good for us.
While he writes citizens about health care cost, perhaps Sen. Warner would pay better attention to the real cost of our current system, which he purports to care about, while not caring a fig about reining in insurance and health care delivery companies outrageous, unlimited, and relentless profiteering on sick people.
According to Donald H. Taylor of Duke University here,
• We spend 16% of our GDP on health care (Mark Warner says 17%--yet doesn't propose any meaningful help for citizens, only industry protection).
• Americans spend $7500 per capita on health care.
• We get little in return because we get fewer positive outcomes than our main European allies at double the cost.
• The US spends $2 for every $1 those countries spend.
• We do not live longer. We do not have better infant survival in the first year. I could go on.
Senator Warner purports to care about cost, but appears to care nothing about the fact that 62% of personal bankruptcies are due, in part, to catastrophic health care bills. I am waiting for Senator Warner to explain why it is possible in the United States of America that one day of every week is spent in Roanoke Courts on one hospital taking away what people have, often everything, because the individuals cannot pay their medical bills. In America? But, no new regulation is in the offing, no protections whatsoever for Americans at the hands of the Blue (Cross) Dogs. Has Senator Warner ever read a word of what Elizabeth Warren has written about the role of health care in the catastrophic economic peril families face?
Though he doesn't suggest how to actually rein in costs, Mark Warner keeps implying the big lie, that the President's (and the House's) health care package have no cost containment consequences, or will result in no savings. He pretends (along with the CBO) that spreading the risk across more citizens won't contain cost, or drive down emergency room costs; that real competition with a public option won't save money; or that eliminating actuaries (who game health care by denying coverage, denying claims and wrongfully canceling policies) won't save up to 17% of every health care dollar.
Senator Warner talks about improvements such as in using telemedicine, when what he really means is big brother monitoring of us in our homes, but reduced in-person contact with medical personnel. Somehow I don't think the profiteer of cell phone bandwidth and the introduction of paying for incoming calls (as well as outgoing and, hence, doubling our phone costs) is the right one to talk to us about cost. Someone will benefit from increased use of telemedicine, big time, but not the patient.
Paul Krugman reminds that the Blue Dog Coalition was founded by former LA Rep. Billy Tauzin who is now the president of PhRMA. How symbolic! But, reform cannot be based upon what's good for the health care industrial complex. Rather, as Krugman says, reform rests on four pillars: regulations, mandates, subsidies, and competition (real competition, not the platitudinous utterance of it, ad nauseum). Without those four, the Blue (Cross) Dogs double cross us with a "plan" that's worse than nothing.
As Harold Meyerson points out:
Over at Senate Finance, judging by the reports coming of the committee, a solonic gang of six -- three Democrats, including chairman Max Baucus of Montana, and three Republicans, including ranking member Charles Grassley of Iowa -- are turning out a bill whose resemblance to anything the president has championed is accidental and incidental. To secure Republican support, they oppose a public plan. To secure Republican support, they oppose employer mandates, even on the largest corporations.
President Obama has his hands full with these recalcitrant senatorial Blue (Cross) Dogs. With friends like these... |
