[I in no way want to throw stones at the past so to speak. But when Reagan switched what was mainly a not for profit health care system, he sowed the seeds of our current mess. Along with that, he sowed the seeds of the undeclared war on the Middle Class, which has caught up to us now, to the point where we can't take care of ourselves; when he started to break the Unions.]
The Union Brothers of the IBEW I worked with saw it all coming today, from what 12 years of Republican appointed Judges would do to Unions. Don't let anyone tell you that Unions are special interest, for they are the smaller Govt that the workers are always going to need on Local Levels.-health care,pensions,education, a living wage.]
D.C. did not have to Babble-on for a year about Health Care and come up with a Plan that mainly just benefit the Insurance Companies. With Obama selling out to Big Pharma, by a back room deal that will prevent Medicare from bargaining for better Med prices.
They could have simply allowed anyone who wanted to buy into Medicare at cost to do so. Or as Kucinich talked of, letting people buy into Local State H.C. plans for the poor. Like here in "Massatack", we have a great Masshealth Program that use to cover everything I needed being on SSDI. Now, since what Our State House did, (Which D.C. used as a model.) I make too much on SSDI to be covered by either Masshealth or Common Wealth Health-which is another good plan here for the poor.
Social Security and Medicare were never meant to be part of the Govt. Budget. The FICA tax is a completely separate tax. We can make sure that both are well Funded by expanding the tax to all income above the limit it now has of around 106k
If we did that we could even lower the Retirement Age, so that we could put more younger people to work. Those on the right are thinking backwards now, by wanting to raise the Retirement Age and reducing Benefits.
Then also there is a Worker Ownership Cooperative in the Basque Region of Northern Spain called Mondragon. It was started by a Parish Priest who taught at a Trade School and encouraged his Students to start Coops based on the Social Principals of the Church, which is have Capital at the Service of Labor. (And contrary to popular belief, only Labor can talk.) Mondragon is getting together with the USW to start Union Coops here in this Broken Promised Land and Canada too.
Not everyone needs to join these Coops are a Union either. Though when this combo of Mondragon and Unions is up and running, it will have its own Benefits for its Worker Owners. All of that will take a lot of pressure off the necessary Public Programs which will always be needed.
To anyone who still thinks that this Broken Promised Land has the best Health Care system in the World, here is a song with a sense of humor which will show you where we are rated on this Planet in Peril: Well Paul Hipp's link is lost but its in my videos.
