Matt Taibbi Explains How YOU Will Be Fucked by Heathcare Reform.

This morning I read a ten day old article by Matt Taibbi of the Rollingstone Magazine. In this long article he explains how we got to where we are in this debate that is mostly like a fixed shell game. He points out how Mr. Backus of Montana and his Gang of Six have high jacked thei legislative process to protect the economic interests of the health insurance industry which the Gang of Six is 'ethically' bound by payment of money to protect. Matt is not afraid to call a whore a whore and does so on many different occasions in this op-ed piece. I wish someone could say that Matt is lying about this but unfortunately I cannot.

Let Us Be Crystal Clear.

The current bogey-man debate over Health Care is more like a food fight than anything else. First of all let's be sure we are talking about the same thing. This debate is not about health care. Potentially we have the finest health care available anywhere at any cost. The debate is much more about how it is rationed, if you will. The current distribution system is a bottom line distribution system. It is set up based upon the insane belief that someone or something should be making a profit Those who are opposed to changes in the distribution and current system of rationing of this fundamental right are not led by stuffy Dickensian GOPers, although those fellow have signed on in that battle. People like Smiling Chuck Grassley are modern-day Hessians. They are hired guns, if you will. Smiling Chuck has taken in 2.5 million dollars from the health care and pharmaceutical industry during the last 5 years.The Blue Dogs of the Democratic Party are in the forefront of opposition too. This Battle for America is esentially being waged, directed and, more importantly, funded by those who have the most to lose by making any meaningful changes in this system of rationing. There is a precept of politics coined in the last 30 years that says it all and is just as relevant and foundational as when it was first uttered: follow the money! The health insurance industry funds 15% of the Gross Domestic Product of the the U.S. and they make a hefty profit out of it. Some $14, 000,000,000 at last count. The American People are a cash cow for the industry. What's wrong with this picture? Let me tell you what's wrong with this picture. Adequate health care is a fundamental human right. It is not something that should be designed to make money, obscene amounts of money, for the gate-keepers and the collectors of ration stamps. Simple morality demands a change in this system. It demands a change whereby delivery of health care is maximized and the evil of profit-taking is minimized. That is the main reason why a so-called public option must be included in changes in the health care delivery system. It is absolutely essential that we keep health insurers honest. Nothing short of a public option will do this.

We Can't be an Empire if We Keep You Healthy!

I am reading new arguments that say any significant reformation of the health care delivery system is going to require tax increases dropping down into the middle class in order fund medical care for low income people. That coupled with the bullshit about the 'death panels' that will decide which of us deserve to live and get health care and the forced euthanization of seniors and mandatory hospice care for everyone who has a medical condition more serious than influenaza are designed to frustrate any changes in the health care delivery system in the US of A. These lies are being told by the Cave Dwellers, Tea Baggers and othere assorted prevaricators in the employ and service of the obscene profit making of the health insurance industry. Remember health insurers have profits only if they (1) collect premiums, (2) invest wisely and (3) somehow limit the payouts for health care. How do they limit payouts? There are many ways. They can invoke exclusions for pre-existing conditions, faux claims of fraud when they discover that the customer didn't fully disclose that they treated for pneumonia ten years and recite the mantra that had they known that, they would never have issued the insurance policy to begin with. Some of them have annual expenditure caps..."opps we've already spent too much money on you this year" and the like.
One of the unspoken assumptions in their argument that taxes have to be increased in order to pay for a revamp of the system is that nothing else in our budget is going to be cut and that non-health care related programs such as the F-22 stealth fighter along with other Department of Defense boondoggles will be funded at the same levels as in the past. They will remind us that we still have to pay for the $2,000,000,000,000 Bush Iraqi War that was 'funded' off budget. See we also have to fix Iraq which we broke almost 7 years ago...and folks don't forget we are spending lots of dollars in Afghanistan. I am sorry folks but we cant afford to fund your health care, but just be comforted that there will be 'pie in the sky when you die' and in heaven there will be no sickness and no death.