Can't Contain Their Cackles

A couple of months back, I wrote an entry pretty much despairing of anything in a healthcare reform bill but a hodgepodge of insurance-industry-serving provisions. I was convinced then, and even more so now, the American people are going to get screwed by the corporately-owned Congress doing the will of their masters. For me, it's perfectly plain and obvious that anything less than a single-payer system, socialized medicine, is a disservice to us, but I've long since acknowledged that compared to the vast majority of people I meet (and for that matter, don't meet), I'm on the lunatic fringe of US politics, not to mention other subjects. It's so plain to me that if a whole bunch of other civilized countries have adopted this system to take care of their people, then it must have something to recommend it. 

But what's plain to me simply is not plain to other people. To say the least. The frothing at the mouth that's ensued over the possibility that the government of the United States might actually be a participant in the providing affordable, trustworthy healthcare to all its citizens has been hysterical, irrational, and unceasing. And I'm convinced at this point that it and the evil forces on the right in this country are going to mutilate any reasonable attempt at healthcare reform, and by that I mean, some sort of plan with a significant government presence in it to compel the bloodsuckers--big pharm and insurance giants--to rein in their filthy and scandalous profits by being forced to lower prices.

But all indications are, this is not going to happen. Instead the Democrats seem determined to commit suicide on this healthcare matter. To buy into the insurance-company-approved expedient of healthcare cooperatives, which as the article explains, are easy for the companies to subvert. Here's the pertinent observation from the article. Really sounds like something any thinking person should embrace, right?

The danger for Democrats is that this industry-friendly legislation would impose new burdens on citizens, including government fines for failing to sign up for a health-insurance plan, without guarantees that the coverage won’t be almost as crappy and expensive as it is now. The bill rejects a public option that would put competitive pressure on private insurers.

Plus, key elements of the bill, like the so-called shopping “exchanges,” aren’t to take effect until 2013, meaning that Americans will have watched this messy process unfold for months and then be told that the current system, which has cruelly pushed millions of sick people into bankruptcy, will get four more years to bankrupt more Americans.

 Read the whole piece to get the full monty on this. The Democrats seem determined to put the crazies back in charge of the government at the earliest possible time. Indeed, who can trust a party that has screwed up so royally since it was given an unmistakable mandate and the majority to carry it out back in the November elections? That seems like a hundred years ago, doesn't it?

The Republicans cannot contain their cackles.