to Congress, the American Medical Association (AMA) launched what was
then a massive counterattack. The AMA claimed that government health
insurance would lead to rationing of health care, higher prices,
diminished choices and more bureaucracy. The AMA beat both Truman and
the unions that were backing the legislation, using the phrase
"socialized medicine" to scare the people.
Fifty-nine years later, "corporatized medicine" has produced all these
consequences, along with stripping away the medical profession's
independence. Today, the irony is that the corporate supremacists are
accusing reformers in Washington of what they themselves have produced
throughout the country. Rationing, higher prices, less choice, and
mounds of paperwork and corporate red tape. Plus, fifty million people
without any health insurance at all.
On Thursday, July 30, 2009, there will be a mass rally for a single
payer system in Washington, DC. It is time to put what most Americans
want on the table. (See www.Healthcare-Now.org for more information.)
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