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OpEdNews Op Eds    H3'ed 9/8/09

Raising Essential Questions About Health Care Proposals, Insurance Lobbyists and "Public Option"

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Message Maureen Cruise
"Of all the forms of inequality, injustice in health care is the most shocking and inhumane. Rev. Martin L. King Jr.

Dear friends,

It is wonderful to have you and other bright, committed young people so very interested in this issue. After all it is your future. I applaud your involvement and all of your efforts, though we differ drastically on approaches to solving this desperate situation.

In considering any issue context and history is essential. I have been intimately involved with this system professionally and personally (as have many people, especially at my age). I have also a lifelong political activism career and have learned that Truman was absolutely correct when he paraphrased Shakespeare (nothing new under the sun) and said something like...the only fresh news is the history you don't know. I continue to learn old 'new' news daily. ...from young people, as well.

Asking questions is the most important thing we can do outside of thinking independently and then advocating for what is needed. Questioning the prevailing "truths" of a broken system should be the basis for rational thought and purposeful advocacy.

These are some questions I consider...some rhetorical. Answering is not essential... nor always possible because many answers cannot be known. There are behind the scenes plans, some in the works for decades. Acknowledging questions is important.

Who wrote the 1,000 page document now before congress? Who has read it? Does spending $1.5 million dollars a day, deploying 900 lobbyists daily, employing relatives, staff members of committee members matter? Do the 120 lobbyists and more...secretly visiting the white house without any public record of discussion make a difference? Why is that a secret?

Single payer advocates have been banned from discussion, why is that? Why is single payer dangerous?
Why isn't public option equally dangerous? Do the millions of dollars they have personally invested in the Insurance and related industries affect the judgement of legislators sitting on theses relevant committees?
If corporate power can prevent the best solution, what kind of solution will they "allow" and why would we ' think it would benefit us? Should we accept the implication that industries have the right to "allow" anything?

What is public option as it stands?
What does public option get us?
How does it do that?
Who is eligible and who is not?
What problems we face now does it solve? specifically?
What are or problems as people with healthcare or lack of it?
Are these addressed?
Who are we protecting and enriching?

Who wins and what? Who loses and what?
Who pays and how? Who profits and how?
Who has the power? Who does not?

Is this universal, available to anyone who wants and needs it? NO
Does this solves runaway costs copays, deductibles, premiums to individuals? NO
Does this prevent medical debt, bankruptcy and the concomitant foreclosures, reverse mortgages? NO
Does this insure comprehensive necessary care? NO
Does this ensure quality standard care? NO
Will the emergency rooms be unburdened? NO
Does this solve denial of care? Minimization of care? Overtreatment for profit? Under treatment for profit? NO
Does this return medical decisions to healthcare providers? NO
Does this free individuals from bad policies and give them a choice of plans ? NO
Is the risk pool sufficient to support the system? NO

The NO answers are because.......
Public option buys insurance...it does not guarantee healthcare.
We are suffering from a lack of access to healthcare.
We have 6,000 policies.
We have 1300 insurance companies controlled by 10 or so mono ploy conglomerates.

With those policies....we get premiums, copays, deductibles, medical debt, bankruptcy and healthcare and treatment decisions based on profitability and investment return.

We do not get access to quality evidenced based, medically advised healthcare.
Profit as a goal prevents that. People are only a means to the end of amassing money.
Healthcare is not the goal of insurance. Purchasing policies is the goal.

Public option is a stealth bailout for the insurance industry.
It forestalls any real reform. It keeps corporate control and it continues publicly funding their investment strategies, shareholders and CEO salaries. People will continue to suffer needlessly.

Think Machiavelli. Think organized crime. Think Mafia. Think Trojan Horse, Brer Rabbit, Tom Sawyer.

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Maureen Cruise is an RN, a member of Progressive Democrats of L.A. and on the L.A. Steering Committee of Healthcare for All.
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