Healthcare Reform

President Obama’s healthcare reform will fall far short of the expectations of both Republicans and Democrats. Although it now appears that some form of a healthcare bill will be passed by Congress it is but a pale hue of the image envisioned by true reform.

Supporters of HCR have had little to cheer about since this administration took office and Congressional Centrists, Blue Dogs, and “Values” members have diminished spirits even further. The President’s comment in the late summer of 2009 began to reveal his divergence from Liberals and Progressives regarding healthcare reform. As he then stated in his speech, "To my Progressive friends, healthcare reform has always been about ending insurance abuses and making coverage affordable to everyone".

That statement perfectly demonstrated a broad misunderstanding of the desired goals of healthcare reform held by the majority of Americans and an intentional misreading of the desired outcome anticipated by Progressives. The answer most Americans wanted to hear was that reform “has always been about making and keeping people healthy”! Every other advanced country on Earth mandates that healthcare providers must first demonstrate that the care they provide is working by making their patients healthier rather than merely lining the pockets of the drug and healthcare industries. The president’s "Progressive friends" want universal healthcare for all citizens under a single payer system which is the only way costs can ever be controlled. They want healthcare providers to be rewarded or penalized for actual results their patients experienced from their care and not for the profits they generate for healthcare profiteers.

Unlike his predecessor, intelligence is not this president’s short suit, so he is likely not suffering from a misunderstanding of Progressives. Instead, he is enabling a calculated agenda to prevent oversight of the healthcare industry just as he has stifled the oversight duties of Congress to prevent any serious investigation of the previous administration. President Obama, rather than exemplifying the change on which he campaigned, has instead joined the ranks of undignified Oval Office occupants that not only consider themselves above the law, but execute the powers of the office to guarantee their exclusion from it.

The president also stated he did not believe a single payer system was workable in our country. Having already acknowledged his prominent intellect, it is impossible to avoid recognizing this statement as anything except purposely misleading, factually unsupported, disingenuous, deceitful, dishonest, a lie. Take your pick. Single payer is already working well in other countries and is frightfully successful.

Why is it paramount for the government of this country to prevent its citizens from having universal healthcare? Could it have something to do with the fact that the global healthcare industry (hospitals, doctors, insurance companies, medical equipment manufacturers, medical network suppliers, etc.) has few significant countries remaining that have not rejected their predatory method of providing healthcare and of that few, America is the richest, business friendly government, with an extremely disorganized citizenry. Allowing Americans to have single payer universal healthcare would deplete a major amount of the revenue generated by the industry who continue to achieve astronomical profits. Because the other countries with universal healthcare regulate costs and ensure performance, they are not contributing to the bottom line of the industry in a significant way, it is up to Americans to fill the void and over pay for care that is no where near as good as in those other countries.

In effect, America’s failure to move to single payer universal healthcare is enabling the continued excesses of the healthcare and insurance industries and contributing to the ability of other nations to enjoy the lower cost and better results of their own healthcare systems.