Monday, December 14, 2009

A Big Christmas Present to the Insurance Industry from All of Us

It looks like the public option and the Medicare extension will be dropped from the health insurance reform legislation.

Congress is about to give Big Insurance a blow job at our expense.

If the Dems lose Congress in 2010, it will be their own fault. The only reason I'd continue to vote for them at this point is because the Republicans are all homicidal lunatics on a drinking binge.

Meanwhile, everyone's costs are going to skyrocket and insurance companies will enjoy a huge legally mandated bonanza.

How much will anyone care to bet that the whole reform package will be repealed before 5 years?

Prediction: There will be no meaningful health insurance reform in my lifetime (the next 25 to 30 years). The system will only be reformed when it goes bankrupt in a major public health catastrophe (you'd think AIDS would be that catastrophe, but it has to strike a population that matters like rich straight white people to really have an impact). In the meantime, our current system of health insurance will continue to play a large role in the transformation of the United States into Brazil 50 years ago (definitely not into the Brazil of today).
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2 comments:

  1. Wormwood's DoxyDecember 14, 2009 at 10:23 PM

    I have voted in every election for which I've been eligible to vote, since I was 18.

    I wonder now why I've bothered, and whether I will bother in the future.

    Huge majorities in both Houses. A supposedly smart, savvy President. And to watch it all go down in flames, with the President and those huge majorities falling all over themselves to give away the store....to Joe Lieberman, of all people. (Not to mention Campbell and Stupak.)

    I'm stunned and sick and wondering what the hell happened? How did this all go so badly so fast? And WHY?

    ReplyDelete
  2. toujoursdanDecember 14, 2009 at 11:12 PM

    I think health insurance reform is all but dead too. I wish this could serve as a wake up call that unaccountable corporate interests have more power than the government, but I don't think it's going to undo 40 years of propaganda to the contrary.

    I really think health insurance reform isn't going to be tackled until a significant percentage of middle class workers lose the employer subsidized portion of their coverage and have to pay the whole thing out of pocket.

    ReplyDelete

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