Heath Insurance Spinmeister on Corporate Lies

[Guest American Woman]

How did you support Candidate Obama from Canada?

I ran absentee voter registration drives in downtown. Sarcasm is a bitch, eh?

How was that supporting Obama? Absentee voters could also vote for McCain.

[nicky10013]

How was that supporting Obama? Absentee voters could also vote for McCain.

Not these ones.

[Guest American Woman]

Not these ones.

So how did you prevent them from voting for McCain?

[bush_cheney2004]

So how did you prevent them from voting for McCain?

Very good question!

[KeyStone]

I've started reading the book - surprised that it's not getting as much coverage as Diary of an Economic Hit Man, but still a good read. Unfortunately, the facts are watered down with pages of soul-searching, and transformation as the authors of these tell-alls have a need to justify themselves.

Anyways, a couple of the most interesting things so far are:

1) The Reagan recording that was sent out to stop Medicare. In it, he talks about the slippery slope of socialized medicine, and says that if it is allowed to come in, it will only be a matter of time before the government tells your children where they have to work.

2) Apparently, in the US they have healthcare fairs. Doctors volunteer to give away their services, and they create a makeshift hospital with tents in a field somewhere (sort of like M.A.S.H.), and people line up for days to get this healthcare in dodgy conditions. This apparently was what motivated Potter to change his mind about what he was doing and write the tell-all.

3) Michael Moore's movie Sicko scared the shit out of them, as it was dead-on accurate, and they scrambled looking for ways to counteract it, finally settling on the standard fear of socialism.

When Americans say that they have the best healthcare in the world, they are right. They have the best doctors, and the best facilities. If I was a billionaire that is where I would go. But, what they really mean is that they have the top doctors and facilities. The overall delivery of healthcare to Americans as a whole is woefully inadequate, resulting in unnecessary deaths, suffering and bankruptcy.

I can't imagine living in a country where HMO's try to deny me basic coverage because of a loophole, or some minor detail missed on a form somewhere. I mean in Canada, you're sick - you go to the hospital and get fixed. Sort the rest out later. That's how it should be in every country that can afford it.

[bush_cheney2004]

I can't imagine living in a country where HMO's try to deny me basic coverage because of a loophole, or some minor detail missed on a form somewhere. I mean in Canada, you're sick - you go to the hospital and get fixed....

Gee....I can't imagine living in a country where you have to wait weeks or months for routine medical imaging, diagnostics, joint replacement, etc. And that's only after you have been screened by a general practitioner. What are they waiting for?

[dre]

Gee....I can't imagine living in a country where you have to wait weeks or months for routine medical imaging, diagnostics, joint replacement, etc. And that's only after you have been screened by a general practitioner. What are they waiting for?

That happens in both systems.

[Jack Weber]

If ever there was an industry whose nationalization would improve society, the insurance industry is that industry.

Ideally, the state could provide insurance, and all the insurance companies; health, auto, residential and the like, would be eliminated. Not only would there be enormous savings to the nation but the system would be much more efficient and effective.

And while we're at it, let's nationalize the pharmaceutical industry too. Another wasted bunch of slithering, snake-like bloodsuckers.

Sir Big Giant Head...

That was a rare moment of pure lucidity...

Spot on,sir!!!

[bush_cheney2004]

That happens in both systems.

Maybe, but it happens by design in one of them.

What is official wait time? That's a foreign concept to me.

Edited January 7, 2011 by bush_cheney2004

[guyser]

Gee....I can't imagine living in a country where you have to wait weeks or months for routine medical imaging, diagnostics, joint replacement, etc. And that's only after you have been screened by a general practitioner. What are they waiting for?

Neither could I . Thankful that I live in a country that doesnt. Can you imagine? Yikes.

[bloodyminded]

I'm I reading this wrong? Did Argus just say that?

Argus is not a doctrinaire right-winger who will automatically choose sides based on Rooting for the Home Team. I've heard him make these points before.

We don't agree on much, but credit where it's due.

[Guest TrueMetis]

Argus is not a doctrinaire right-winger who will automatically choose sides based on Rooting for the Home Team. I've heard him make these points before.

We don't agree on much, but credit where it's due.

Then I've gotten a wrong impression of him.

[bloodyminded]

Then I've gotten a wrong impression of him.

Far be it from me to defend the poster who suggested that I'm a child molester...based on the criteria that I disagree with him politically. Most of your impressions of him are undoubtedly correct, if not too generous.

[Michael Hardner]

Then I've gotten a wrong impression of him.

I have noticed that longer term posters like Argus tend to have more nuanced positions on such issues. Or maybe it's just that those posters have argued "agree-to-disagree" matters to a standstill enough times that they realize it's a dead end, so they don't bring those up as much. As a result, I may be more aware of points that posters like Argus are open to discuss then their bedrock political views.

[Shady]

Any corporation that welcomes customers being forced to purchase its services at the end of a government-held gun (as this bill forces people to buy health insurance and takes away their rights if they do not) is not worthy of being called a corporation. They'd just be a bunch of thugs.

As are those holding the gun. In this case, the Democrats in congress and in the white house.

[Shady]

I mean in Canada, you're sick - you go to the hospital and get fixed.

Actually, that's how it is for American hospitals as well. If you show up needing treatment, by law they're required to give it. Whether the patient can afford the care or not.

[WIP]

The point of this piece is that of corporate deception. Without the requirement that you don't like, the rest of it remains true and pertinent nonetheless.

We are just lucky that Medicare got started in Canada during that lull between the end of WWII and 1980, when the middle class was growing in size and income levels, and corporate control of society had receded somewhat. We would never have got it off the ground in the present environment, and I don't see how America can get anything more than the near-worthless compromise they are calling "health care reform." No reforms are possible under the current situation, that are not tacitly supported by the health, drug and private hospital corporations.