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Sometimes it takes awhile to sort through all of the bull.With 'health care reform', what you see when you are finally able to do this is one thing. What this bill really does is block all health care reform until 2013.
Oh sure, its all dressed up as a 'reform' bill. And the rightwing and the insurance companies are doing their bit of theater to pretend this bill will be awful for them. But, when you look really closely, what you see is that every meaningful reform is delayed and deferred until 2013.
That's the real purpose of this bill. It blocks all health care reform during the Obama administration. It provides a clear signal to all the big health care corporations that they are safe, free and clear, from any threats of reform until 2013. Their stocks are already rising on the news.
This is quite a feat. These corporations have been screwing over American citizens so badly now that the calls for 'reform' have been growing louder and louder. Simply ignoring these calls, like Washington has been doing for the last 15 years, was no longer an option.
But, when you go to Maplight.org and see that the HMO's, hospital corporations and the big pharma corporations have given some $90 million to Congress in the last 8 years, it was unlikely that the citizens would get the reform they desperately need.
But, its rather amazing that what the Democrats have done for their buddies and contributors in these big health corporations is to declare flat out that they are safe from any threats of reform until 2013.
They can charge whatever they want for insurance. They can deny policies to anyone they don't want to cover, or make the prices so hight that the policies are unaffordable to anyone who can't already buy a hospital. They can continue to charge more for drugs in this country than anywhere else. They can continue to deny claims to anyone who dares to actually try to collect on the policy for which they've been paying exhorbinant premiums.
None of this is regulated or reformed until 2013. That's what this bill really does. It tells all of these big corporations that they are safe, free and clear, from any prospect of reform while Obama is in the White House.
And of course, since what pitiful reforms are delayed for so long, that gives time for Congress to come back later and take them away. My guess is that the line will be something like "with the shape of the economy, we can't afford to do this at this time.".
This is what the Democrats have done. They've passed a bill saying that there will be no health care reform during Obama's presidency.
What we need to do is to elect a new Congress in Nov. 2010 that will pass the real reform we need now. How to do that? Never vote for any candidate with the money to run TV ads. When you see a TV ad for any candidate, realize that its paid for with corporate money, and that when elected, that this candidate will serve those corporate interests.
Any candidate with the money to run TV ads is not to be trusted with power. Don't vote for them.
