The Entertainment Value of Snuffing Grandma
A nation of children roots for the Mafia
Joe Bageant. Deer Hunting with Jesus. 20 August 2009

http://www.joebageant.com/joe/2009/08/the-entertainment-value-of-snuffing-grandma.html

There ain't any healthcare debate going on, Bubba. What is going on are mob negotiations about insurance, and which mob gets the biggest chunk of the dough, be it our taxpayer dough or the geet that isn't in ole Jim's impoverished purse. The hoo-ha is about the insurance racket, not the delivery of healthcare to human beings. It's simply another form of extorting the people regarding a fundamental need -- health.

Unfortunately, the people have been mesmerized by our theater state's purposefully distracting and dramatic media productions for so long they've been mutated toward helplessness. Consequently, they are incapable of asking themselves a simple question: If insurance corporation profits are one third of the cost of healthcare, and all insurance corporations do is deliver our money to healthcare providers for us (or actually, do everything in their power to keep the money for themselves), why do we need insurance companies at all?

Siamese twins, joined at the hip, they share the same goal, preservation of control -- the government's social control and the corporations' economic control. And you cannot have one without the other.

Oh god, how I love the term 'theater state' - how perfect.  A Thespisocracy?  That sounds cool - I think I can sell that to the young people.  Years ago now Frank Zappa said the 'politics are just the entertainment branch of American Industry' and the health care debate does a damn good job of proving it. 

But the power of the media - something controlled by only a very few multi-national corporations - has been pretty overwhelming.  Surreal even. 

Ahh, to be young and innocent again, why I remember all the way back to January and inauguration time, back when huge mobs of regular Americans descended on Washington D.C. so they could hang outside the broadcast booths and in a very strange twist - became the news by showing up and hanging out, outside a news booth that was manufacturing them to be the news.  Ah yes, in that weekend we repeat every four years, there was moment there - I really tell 'ya, almost a whole moment, where overwhelmed by the lofty words, the ceremony itself, the bands, music, flags and fancy clothin' that I almost for a split second thought it might be possible (if we worked real fast and all) to actually get a bill passed by the Congress and the President that might in fact actually do something to try to help the American people. 

But no, the almost moment in which I nearly thought that passed. 

Little though did I even have a glimpse, an inkeling of just exactly what would happen on the way to that vote.  It's mindblowing!

Look, I knew that any piece of legislation in this country, for damn near a hundred years now, have been passed 'in the name of the people, but for the corporations.'  You have to go back to Teddy Roosevelt to find anything that attempted to change - or hold back really - that balance and tried to work against the corporations to help the 'little guy.'

So, any thing involving health care - a huge domestic industry (about the only one we have left) was going to benefit the super huge insurance companies, much more than it was ever going to help you.  Bet on it.  The companies have, and to sweeten the pot and keep it interesting, they bought most of Congress to make sure that 'their interests in this haven't been forgotten' in the rush to like 'help people.'

But wow.  Death Camps for old people.  Death Boards.  Pulling the Plug on Grandma.  Who could have ever believed that they could have sold something so far off the mark?  That took stones to push the debate that far.  It also shows how far off the mark they need to push it in order to defeat something that most Americans want and see a need for.  Really, a bill from these morons that actually made sense and helped people, because most of the bills in DC are not for us, they are just to write checks to these large corporations that really run DC and the rest of the world.  Nah, can't do it.

Was this the perfect bill?  Hell no, and you can thank these corporations for that.  Back when Harry S Truman tried this you had the opportunity for a common sense no nonsense approach to how to do it.*  That moment was lost then. It was only going to get harder from that point out. It wasn't even the bill that the people who voted Obama and the Dems into office wanted.  In that it didn't go near far enough, most reasonable people who have looked into to think the French and German systems are pretty proper, and they are a variation of Single Payer.

But pulling the plug on Grandma?  Wow.  That's a pretty desperate fight.

But it is a desperate fight.  The insurance companies are right about one thing - and its the only thing they need to be right about - that sooner or later, once you start down that road, at some point you're going to effectively get rid of insurance companies. They are an un-necessary part of the delivery system in an efficient system. They know that, just like I do.

But kids, its pretty much proof as to how powerful the corporations are when it comes to making our government their bitch.

I mean really, either something powerful is controlling the process, or these idiots are even dumber than I think, and that's almost non-functioning.  We got all these nut-cases come out of the wood work and get on National TV (well, cable) by really acting all super-duper nuts all over all of us.  They are out there - with guns on the hip and shoulder - talking 'bout how the government is now controlled by some sort of Hitlaian Marxist Cabal (never mind the impossibility of that) and what?  You out here in the streets armed so that the Gubm't don't come and pull the plug on Granny, by giving you the kind of health care basics that in fact, Granny gets and you don't. And you're wearing guns - to a Presidential Event - why's that again?  Oh, yeah, your second amendment rights, and what's with that then?  When was the last time a bunch of Americans had to arm themselves for public meetings?  Antebellum Days down on the Plantation, pre-civil war or so?  Not counting terrorist groups like the Klan, and the Black Panthers, Tim McVie and the Weatherman?  Is that who you're pallin' round with these days?  Them people?

I mean, OK, your walking around with guns, where the President of the United States is going to appear?  Do you have any clue as to the amount of firepower that guy shows up with?  Do you enjoy having that red dot hover on you all day?  Cause you know and I know, it is.  At the first shot fired, you would be targeted and taken out, as you are a direct threat to the President of the United States whom those agents are sworn to protect, and they are really, really, serious about it.  Secret Service has zero sense of humor.  They don't much care 'bout no Second Amendment rights at the moment,  they are going to 'neutralize the threat' and that's just they way they roll dog.

But yeah, all this over health care, you would think that for the mental health provisions alone - Ted has insisted on it - these people - who could so obviously use a little mental health care - would be all for this one. 

But the ways its been written and they way its coming down its just going to make it worse for us, and better for the insurance companies - how 'bout them potatoes?

We will not see even the most ordinary kind of healthcare declared as a human right, as it is in so many other nations. We will see, however, greater access to the public treasury by the insurance corporations.

That's a right on deal there.






*The Truman approach was to look at the US in 1946 and see that a huge chunk of the nation was - or recently had been - in the military services, so he was just going to keep all that going, in effect expanding the military benefits/G I Bill, to all medical services, and that would have worked I think.

That is why I have felt that the best way to fix the problem is to get rid of insurance altogether. Studies have demonstrated that insurance drives up cost. When a doctor sets a price for services ($500), and you pay with your insurance, then they won't be getting paid for probably months. The doctor has to hire staff to go through all of the paperwork that endlessly has to be sent and re-sent to insurance companies. That costs more money. In the end, the doctor receives a fraction of what the charge was (maybe $200) and the $25 co-pay you paid. That is why the doctor will instead charge $1,000 instead of $500 because they know they won't get that full amount. Therefore, the costs keep going up.

Another problem with insurance (private or public) is there is no incentive to optimize one's health. Everyone in the group is rewarded or punished based on the actions of the others. If my entire workplace is smoking, drinking, and eating too much and as a result is using up too much of their insurance, then next year, everyone's premium will go up including mine and I am essentially paying for their poor health habits.

My solution is to replace health insurance with health savings accounts. That puts you in charge and you responsible. Instead of you paying $25 a week to an insurance company you may or may not use, that goes into a tax-exempt healthcare account which you can use as you use healthcare services. Since it is strictly your money, you will likely be wise about it and make healthier decisions so you won't have to use it up and you won't be making frivolous visits to ER/urgent care when you could take an aspirin.

Doctors would now be dealing with consumers with direct pricing vs. a middle man. They wouldn't have to jack up the price so much because they would get the money the moment you came into the waiting room. This would also encourage competition between medical offices further bringing prices down. Either way, I don't think people who make wise decisions with their lives should be forced to pay for others who don't. This also applies to our tax dollars.

I am wondering where the money goes. Walgreens  I had to pay $259 for a script. Same name brand, dosage and everything in Canada, $34.95

QuoteI am wondering where the money goes

Marketing, some to politicians, lobbyists, doctors, lawyers, researches, ghost writers, stock holders, and the management.

QuoteBut these days it often seems as if Mr. Daschle never left the picture. With unrivaled ties on both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue, he talks constantly with top White House advisers, many of whom previously worked for him.

He still speaks frequently to the president, who met with him as recently as Friday morning in the Oval Office. And he remains a highly paid policy adviser to hospital, drug, pharmaceutical and other health care industry clients of Alston & Bird, the law and lobbying firm.

Many of those things in Canada too so why the price difference? Change that and we could lower health care costs dramatically and make many things affordable.