Republican claims that they want health reform their way are bogus. They want more gifts to the health insurance industry.

When accused of opposing health care reform, Republicans defend theirselves by claiming they do want reform. They want tort reform, part of their longstanding attack on lawyers-- who are traditionally among the strongest Democratic fundraisers-- and allowing de-regulation of interstate rules.

The first issue-- tort reform-- takes away the right of people to seek damages if they are not treated competently. There ARE problems with malpractice. Some doctors prescribe tests and treatments defensively. There ought to be a way to minimize that. A physician friend tells me horror stories of how insurance companies settle for six figures because it's cheaper than defending open and shut cases in court. Tort reform SHOULD be in the current legislation-- not taking away people's rights, but changing the rules so defensive medicine is ended and punitive damages decided based on cost of defense are no longer allowed.


The second "reform," eliminating interstate regulations, is really an obscene outrage.

Imagine if the lowest priced, "slave labor" workers could start working in your state. Employers would dump local employees and unemployment would skyrocket. Well, if there were no interstate regulations, the worst insurers, offering the cheapest policies, could compete in all states. As former Cigna communications director Wendell Potter has told us, all the insurance companies lie and defraud and abuse the system. If the de-regulation the republican leadership like Boehner and McConnell and their talking head echo chamber pundits got their way on this one, we would see a fast accelerating further decline in the quality and trustworthiness of health care, with a following increase in prices.


cropped image from flickr image by talkradionews

The net result of "reforms" the Republicans are calling for would be to make health insurers even more malignant cancers on the American people, the American economy. More people who thought they were protected by insurance would find themselves hit by huge medical charges not covered due to technicalities and clauses. The less toxic insurers would not be able to compete, so the industry would be dragged down to the lowest common denominator.

Yet, when news anchors and political show hosts get these canned responses from Republicans, they fail to call them on the fact that these "reforms" are really further betrayal of the American people and economy. Come on Ed Schultz, Keith Olbermann, Rachel Maddow, Dylan Ratigan. You're all doing great jobs over all. Don't let these frauds claim they are talking about reform when they are talking about raping the American people. Some of the MSNBC anchors are already doing a great job challenging the talking head rightwingers, so they can no longer assume they can say whatever. This is one issue that should never be allowed to just pass.