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Republicans Have the Same Problem with the
Health Care Time Bomb that Hitler had with the nuclear Bomb.
by Rob Kall
www.OpEdNews.com
Fortune recently ran two must-read articles:Socialized
Medicine? From Republicans? and
How the Retiree Health-Care Crunch Will Affect You. These
articles report that the costs of corporately funded health care is
killing corporations. For example, each car that GM builds includes
a $1500 price tag for health insurance. Other countries carry that
cost.
fortune comments: " GM's recent profit
warning proves its business is reeling; one reason is the $5
billion-plus a year it spends on health care, or $1,500 a car.
Automakers in countries where governments fund all health spending
don't lug around that ball and chain. "
This is a deadly factor for US manufacturers competing with those
countries' auto manufacturers. The US's failure to provide universal
health care is not only a disaster for the 50 million uninsured, it
is a disaster in the making for US corporations.
At a state, county and municipal government level there's a
huge problem-- a health care time bomb that has been long avoided
that will show up on accounting books in 2006-- the cost of paying
for retirees health care. These costs have been ignored
ostrich-style by these public entities and finally, in 2006, they
will be forced by new accounting requirements to acknowledge them.
When this change in accounting hit corporations, the reaction was a
massive cutting of health care services and cutting of availability
to health care. That's one of the reasons for the growth in the
number of uninsured people nationwide. When this governmental time
bomb hits, it will send millions of more people onto the uninsured
rolls, and millions more into a situation where their coverage is
drastically cut.
The answer is nationalized health care. Now the Fortune article
says that this is something that Republicans can and should do--
amazing, this coming from a capitalist, right wing bastion. But I
don't believe it's possible. The Republicans are in the same
situation Hitler was in, during WWII, when it was clear that many of
the scientists who were leading the nuclear bomb race were Jewish.
Hitler couldn't acknowledge that their brains were necessary to win
his war. His politics kept him from being able to tap the solution
that could have enable him to win the war.
The Republicans, to espouse nationalized health care, would have
to governmentalize it. Fortune tries to dance around it, but that's
what it would have to be. They even call it socialized medicine. But
Republicans will not be able to pull it off. Their aversion to
government is too strong. Now, this is only partially true, as we've
seen by the Bush administration's expansion of military and security
functions of government. If the Republicans can figure out how to
turn "socialized medicine" into a cash cow that rewards
pharmaceutical and other health care corporations with billions in
government handouts, they might go for it.
The problem is, this will actually increase the cost of health
care, just like the Republican approach to Social Security would
really increase the cost and worsen the problem.
We need a truly nationalized health care plan. Sure, there are a
massive array of details to be worked out, but avoiding it is
killing people and killing our future as a viable competitor in the
world market.
The right wingers of our nation have short-sightedly fought an
approach that will benefit the majority of corporations. These right
wing politicians have sold out our nation's future so they could
pander to health care industry lobbyists who will understandably do
everything they can to prevent this necessary evolutionary step from
happening. When you stop evolution, you create a dead end that
results in the death of a species or, worse, a larger limb of the
evolutional tree. In this case, these right wing sell-outs are
threatening to end the USA's viability.
That leaves progressives-- democrats and greens, primarily-- to
advocate for nationalized health care. The problem is, basing the
advocacy on compassion and the value of life has not resonated with
right wingers or with hypocritical religious conservatives. The
alternative is to push for nationalized health care as a way to save
jobs, as a way to make our corporations more competitive. If we can
get corporations on the side of progressives, then they'll fund
progressive media-- print, talk radio, news shows, documentaries....
and they'll support progressive platforms, PACs and candidates.
The right wing has not only hypnotized right wing religious
conservatives but also big business into thinking it is the only
party that has big business's interests at heart. But this has
led to a horrible situation. Big businesses have in many ways become
like rogue stallions in a domestic herd. They have become psychotic
and sociopathic-- advocating a combination of deregulations of some
laws and institution of new laws that end up allowing them to, with
impunity, ravish the nation and, through action and inaction, kill
and harm millions. Corporation's immense financial power and
immortality allow them to influence legislation so much that tens of
millions of Americans and billions of internationals suffer at their
corporate, disembodied hands. The ironic thing is that this kind of
behavior does not really serve the corporations well, at least in
the long run.
These rogues are out of control and for their own good and the
good of the nation and planet, they must be reined in. Because of
their enormous power, we must use bait to attract them and keep them
reined in of their own volition.
We can do it with creative problem solving that includes taking
the burden of private health care off their backs. Ideally, we can
make a trade with them, so they voluntarily chose to give up some
rights they've grabbed and stolen, such as the right of corporate
personhood-- that enables them to claim the same rights that humans
have. We can offer automakers tax-break rewards for building
cars that save energy, so people don't break their wallets. We can
offer energy companies rewards for developing renewable energy
resource technologies that we can license to other nations.
But these rewards won't help the US unless they are only targeted
for US companies. We must, as we move towards nationalized health
care, and other corporation friendly progressive policies, (See my
previous article on this:
What If We
Had A Progressive Vision That Offered Corporations Big Profits?)
be sure to fine tune them so they do NOT support transnational
corporations, particularly those who that were
formerly US companies which moved offshore to avoid taxes. Let's
treat them as the disloyal turncoats that they are, but be willing
to forgive and forget if they re-establish themselves as US
companies. We also have to deal with the companies that over-use use
part-time workers to avoid paying health care. Actually, my
small business, with four part timers fits in this category, because
the company would go under if it had to pay health insurance for all
employees. Probably, part of the way that nationalized health
care will be paid for will be with a corporate tax. Since I'm paying
a bloody fortune for my family's health care, this will end up
helping me and my small business, and I think it will help
businesses like GM. But I hope the corporate health tax will cause
big companies like Walmart and fast food companies to "feel the
pain." (David Sirota comments in his blog today, "A
November 2004 New York Times article cites a study in Georgia that
found 10,000 children of
Wal-Mart employees were in the state's low-income healthcare program
at a cost to taxpayers of $10 million a year. "
)
How do progressives translate this idea into action? At all
levels, progressives should start pointing out the problems health
care is producing for all levels of government. They should begin
advocating nationalized health care to make business more
competitive. Start talking to local small businesses and local
branches and subsidiaries of big business about wanting to help them
by taking the health care burden off their backs.
The right wing, conservative "strict father" (ala
Lakoff)approach to health care-- that leaves tens of millions
uninsured-- is not working. It is killing our economic future. The
liberal/ progressive nurturing approach, taking care of everyone,
can rescue American business. We need to make it happen and do it
soon, or the US will become a footnote in 21st century economic
history, as India and China come to dominate the world. The timer on
the health care time bomb is ticking. Just as the US took advantage
of Hitler's inability to use the Nuclear option, progressives should
embrace the National health care option as a rescue plan for
business, NOW.
Rob Kall rob@opednews.com
is editor of www.OpEdNews.com You can
read more of his articles at
Rob Kall Archive
He is also president of Futurehealth, Inc
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