OpEdNews - Article: Health and Fear

Single-payer makes all the sense in the world. The opposing arguments are not just 'faulty', they are well-financed lies.

BUT, we must consider this part of our 'political reality': the 800 lb. gorilla in the room.

...when it comes to the upcoming Health Insurance Decision, that gorilla wandering around in the room is not exactly "the insurance companies" as such-- THAT (wealthy adversaries vs. unorganized citizens) is too simplistic.

No. It is FEAR.

The insurance industry through its own means we may never be privy to discover, has worked hard to create a climate of fear and disinformation (1) in the public, and (2) in our so-called 'representatives' in Congress.

There is the surface fear, fairly easy to recognize:

If you pass (or even discuss) single-payer and you will:

[For patients:]

lose choices, or
have long waits for 'rationed' medical care, or
even die while waiting for treatment.

-- hell, that's what happens NOW with private insurance!

[For Congress:]

You may lose your committee positions, seniority, or privileges
You will lose your re-election due to lack of funding

Then there is the deep-rooted fear of 'other consequences' if insurance companies are placed out of the healthcare loop.

What those consequences are, we do not know, but this whole sham 'debate' over universally mandated health insurance, smacks of the same mafioso-style languages, posturing, limit-setting, and threats that we saw in the "Bailout debate":

We are in charge, Do this now, or there will be consequences ("the market will collapse, there will be 'disruption' ", etc.)

Intimidation. Seems to work. Every time.

... home of the brave? Right!

If we should anything, it should be that those companies will continue to profit from our pain and losses, while denying or setting their conditions for real care -- and this time with every American mandated (ordered) to buy a policy -- whether they earn enough to pay rent, or not!

Think about that.

Right now some people unwillingly opt to not have insurance, in order to keep a roof over their family's heads. With a mandated insurance plan, some of their ills may be covered, even while their heads are not!

... land of the free? Right, again!

Be on notice, everybody: these insurance companies whose lifeblood is the bottom line, and who wouldn't know a cure from a cactus, will continue to tell doctors how much and what kind of medicine and treatment they can dispense -- and lie about it to the American people -- until the day the we rise up and say: 'No!'

Right now statistics show Americans pay more for health care per capita than any other industrialized nation, and have fewer positive outcomes to show for it (life span, infant mortality rate, etc).

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