Let's Be Absolutely Clear Here...
I personally never thought that Single Payer ideas in the HCR Debate were going anywhere and so put that ideal off the table at the outset... reason being that in a traditionally capitalist social structure, putting Insurance Companies out of business simply would never "fly" re: witness the vitriolic hysterics over the mere mention of an Option for Public Insurance...
A Public Option has many good things going for it - placing the government in a position to compete with local and regional monopolistic practices by the Insurance giants... but alas they (the GOP and Industry) are Dead Set against a competitor in their domain. Some criticism of conservative Dems is appropriate here as well... The Operative Word here however, is monopoly capitalism, that means Capitalism that is NOT competing in a Real Free Market System.
So the idea of Co-ops has been floated as a middle-ground position to bring competition to the market while preserving "private" enterpise as the operational model for our society, sadly that privacy is like a "prime directive" for a culture like the US which still holds onto many mythologies of it's expansionist/frontier youth...
Having said this - the GOP has resoundingly rejected ALL Three Options - No Single Payer, No Public Option, and now No Coops either!
Where this puts the the debate though, is actually on favorable ground for Reformers - the GOP has effectively made it their Official Position that they are happy with the Monopolistic practices of the Health Insurance Industry - and by definition Against Competition in the "Free Market". In this area of the Economy there is NO Free Market - and the GOP likes it that way!
Since it is The GOP that has placed this frame around their Oppostion to Reform - it is now Open Season to place the onus back on THEM - Are you for the Monopolies or for the People? Are you for Competitive Markets or Against Real Free Markets?
It's Past Time for The People to Define Them as the Corporatist Lackeys that they've made clear that they are - and time for Leadership to Define the Debate in These Terms!
Good from the NYTimes today:
Eagan - Prairie Health Companion - Check it Out.
Thank You
JHC
A Public Option has many good things going for it - placing the government in a position to compete with local and regional monopolistic practices by the Insurance giants... but alas they (the GOP and Industry) are Dead Set against a competitor in their domain. Some criticism of conservative Dems is appropriate here as well... The Operative Word here however, is monopoly capitalism, that means Capitalism that is NOT competing in a Real Free Market System.
So the idea of Co-ops has been floated as a middle-ground position to bring competition to the market while preserving "private" enterpise as the operational model for our society, sadly that privacy is like a "prime directive" for a culture like the US which still holds onto many mythologies of it's expansionist/frontier youth...
Having said this - the GOP has resoundingly rejected ALL Three Options - No Single Payer, No Public Option, and now No Coops either!
Where this puts the the debate though, is actually on favorable ground for Reformers - the GOP has effectively made it their Official Position that they are happy with the Monopolistic practices of the Health Insurance Industry - and by definition Against Competition in the "Free Market". In this area of the Economy there is NO Free Market - and the GOP likes it that way!
Since it is The GOP that has placed this frame around their Oppostion to Reform - it is now Open Season to place the onus back on THEM - Are you for the Monopolies or for the People? Are you for Competitive Markets or Against Real Free Markets?
It's Past Time for The People to Define Them as the Corporatist Lackeys that they've made clear that they are - and time for Leadership to Define the Debate in These Terms!
Good from the NYTimes today:
Eagan - Prairie Health Companion - Check it Out.
Thank You
JHC
