Search This Blog

Friday, November 19, 2010

$86 million just to the US Chamber of Commerce to stop health care reform

That's how much the health insurance industry funneled into the US Chamber of Commerce alone in the past year to stop health care reform.  Much of that was spent convincing a significant chunk of older Americans that 'Obamacare' was going to cut their Medicare, which is not what the bill is designed to do in the first place. 

Throughout the election season it seemed such a contradiction that the Republicans who have always wanted to pare back entitlements such as Medicare were suddenly attacking the Democrats for allegedly doing what they have always intented to do.

Apart from that, the Republican propaganda was a complete and utter lie.  There are two types of Medicare.  One is run durectly by the government while the other, Medicare Advantage gives senior citizens vouchers to buy pay for private insurance.   Both offer the same services.  No prize for guessing which one cost the government more.   It's the voucher system by a whopping 14%. The $500 billion in proposed Medicare cuts in the health care bill is designed to cut the payments to insurance companies, hospitals and doctors without cutting services to patients so the real winners will be the taxpayers. 

It's a matter of faith to Republicans that the private sector is always more efficient and less costly than the government.  The try to prove this by being as wasteful and inefficient as possible when they are running the government.  

Needless to say that the 50 million Americans who choose not to, or can't afford health insurance spent about $0.00 trying to influence voters and politcians. 

No comments: