Comments on: Public v. Corps in National Health Care Debate

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Tue, 26 May 2009 00:07:53 +0000

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By: Concerned Citizen

Concerned Citizen — Sat, 23 May 2009 18:07:26 +0000

(Please excuse my anonymity. Like many people, my relationship with the health insurance industry is such that I cannot be publicly adversarial without fear of repercussion.)

I received an Email from the Democratic National Committee this week, announcing their plan to astroturf their health insurance proposal as being somehow populist. I thought I might share my response:

To: David Plouffe, BarackObama.com
Subject: Re: June 6th: It all begins

The unwillingness of the administration and the congress to permit discussion of a single-payer system is shameful. Ultimately, no matter how you dress it up in “grass roots” propaganda the system that emerges will be dictated by the barons of the health insurance industry and not by the citizenry of the United States.

The campaign you propose is a cheap attempt to paint the discussion as populist, when it is in fact nothing of the kind. If you want to win our support for your healthcare initiatives, try listening to the people before trying to tell us what we think.

By: Quinn Hungeski

Quinn Hungeski — Sat, 23 May 2009 02:19:21 +0000

Susan – Thanks for the comment and additional info. I saw part of the second hearing where Baucus began by asking the gallery to show respect by not speaking out. But had Baucus respected the request of single-payer proponents to seat just one person — one person to speak for the people’s favorite option — at the hearing table, they would not have been driven to speak from the gallery. – Quinn

By: Susan Craze

Susan Craze — Mon, 18 May 2009 20:50:07 +0000

Thanks for posting about medical insurance. I watched the Senate Finance Committee Hearing last week. Of course, before the hearing began the nurses/doctors calling out for single payer were removed and arrested, again. Of course Senator Baucus mentioned that he “respected all the opinions”.
Of course the panel was stacked with Big Insurance and Big Pharma demanding over and over that if Congress includes a public component to the health care reform bill they “need to ensure a level playing field” for the private plans.
Later I looked up the salary of the Secretary of HHS which manages Medicare—among all the other HHS entities (annual salary=$172K) In 2005, the CEO Of United Healthcare was given $26 million. One of the panelists at that hearing was listed as formerly with GHWBush and Clinton administrations—they didn’t tell us she currently is a Director for UHC. I appreciate your blog. Thanks. Susan Craze