[Peace-discuss] why a substantive change in health care isunlikely

[E.Wayne Johnson]

For "administration" I would put "entrenched oligarchy that runs the 
country".

I perceive the health care providers themselves to be a part of the
health insurance "industry" - the medical-industrial complex.

***

I would agree that the forces of the medical-industrial complex have taken 
great advantage of the groundswell of anti-government and anti-Obama 
sentiment and to some extent astroturfed and played the tea party-ers. 
Outfits like the Newt Gingrich crowd and Americans for Prosperity, Pajamas 
TV, Michelle Malkin, Fred Thompson and the quasi-faux-libertarians like 
GlennBeck have all tried to get some spin from the tea parties, but in 
general, the original grassroots are wise to those cats as being 
establishment GOP neocons who are trying to con the teaparties.

The Orwellian line that those neocons would never use but seems attractive 
to me is "Federal Government Run Health Care - from the people who brought 
you Afghanistan, Iraq, the Balkan War, Vietnam, the FDA and the IRS.  We're 
the Government.  We're here to help you.  Trust US."

I think the fundamental problem is that the government institutions are 
truly not worthy of trust because they do represent the interests of the 
elitist oligarchy and certainly not the interests of the people (at all).

I think that Chomsky's observations from the Bedeutung article are 
significant:
"...the majority of American people today don’t accept the assumption that 
it is they who create their institutions and who run their country. The last 
time I looked at the polls, about 80% of the population felt that the 
government is made up of a few big interests looking out for themselves and 
not for the people...Although I don’t have the exact figures at hand, there’s 
a very striking fact: opinions of Congress are extremely low – in the teens. 
Nevertheless, probably 98% of incumbents get re-elected. What this tells you 
is that, essentially, people are aware that they don’t have a choice and 
that they’re not taking part in running the country. ...take April 15th, the 
day when taxes are paid. In a democratic society, where people would feel 
that they are shaping their own lives, this would be a day of celebration. 
The spirit would be “We’re getting together as a community to put our 
resources into implementing policies that we have chosen”. What could be 
better than that? Well, that’s not the way it is here. Instead, it’s a day 
of mourning when some alien force which has nothing to do with us comes to 
steal our hard-earned money.




----- Original Message ----- 
From: "C. G. Estabrook" <galliher at illinois.edu>
To: "E.Wayne Johnson" <ewj at pigs.ag>
Cc: "peace-discuss" <peace-discuss at anti-war.net>
Sent: Tuesday, December 15, 2009 9:01 AM
Subject: Re: [Peace-discuss] why a substantive change in health care 
isunlikely


> The reason that "a substantive change in health care is unlikely" is that 
> the administration is unwilling to do anything in anyway to harm the 
> profits of the health insurance "industry."  If they were, they could do 
> so with their political and propaganda resources.
>
> That's what they've done in regard to to the AfPak war.  The polls showed 
> about the same division on that as on healthcare when Obama began selling 
> escalation -- 40% in favor of the war, 56% opposed to it.
>
>
> E.Wayne Johnson wrote:
>> I really think that the reason that we are not going to get substantive 
>> change in health care is that the limited debate has not included the 
>> necessary questions.  I think the health care system in the US is very 
>> bad indeed, but change will be slow in coming.
>>  Whether Rasmussen is right or not, the health care reform project lacks 
>> support and is likely to incite significant resistance.
>>  *********
>>  ...47% trust the private sector more than government to keep health care 
>> costs down and the quality of care up. Two-thirds (66%) say an increase 
>> in free market competition will do more than government regulation to 
>> reduce health care costs.  ... 71% of voters nationwide say they’re at 
>> least somewhat angry about the current policies of the federal 
>> government. That’s up five points from September. The overall figure 
>> includes 46% who are Very Angry.
>>
>> Rasmussen Poll - Health Care Reform
>> 40% Support Health Care Plan, 56% Oppose It
>> Monday, December 14, 2009
>>  Fifty-six percent (56%) of U.S. voters now oppose the health care plan 
>> proposed by President Obama and congressional Democrats. That’s the 
>> highest level of opposition found - reached three times before - in six 
>> months of polling.
>>  The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that just 
>> 40% of voters favor the health care plan.
>>  Perhaps more significantly, 46% now Strongly Oppose the plan, compared 
>> to 19% who Strongly Favor it.
>>  Overall support for the health care plan fell to 38%, its lowest point 
>> ever, just before Thanksgiving. This is the fourth straight week with 
>> support at 41% or less. With the exception of a few days following 
>> nationally televised presidential appeals for the legislation, the number 
>> of voters opposed to the plan has always exceeded the number who favor 
>> it.
>>  “The most significant detail in the data is that 63% of senior citizens 
>> oppose the plan, including 52% who strongly oppose it,” says Scott 
>> Rasmussen, president of Rasmussen Reports. “Seniors are significant in 
>> this debate both because they use the health care system more than anyone 
>> else and because they vote more than younger voters.”
>>  Rasmussen Reports is continuing to track public opinion on the health 
>> care plan on a weekly basis, with updated findings released each Monday 
>> morning.
>>  Democrats, whose legislators control both the House and Senate, continue 
>> to be the big supporters of the health care plan. Seventy-one percent 
>> (71%) of those in the president’s party favor it. Eighty-one percent 
>> (81%) of Republicans and 69% of voters not affiliated with either party 
>> oppose the plan.
>>  But again the emotion is on the side of the opponents: Thirty-eight 
>> percent (38%) of Democrats strongly support the plan, but 74% of GOP 
>> voters and 57% of unaffiliateds strongly oppose it.
>>  Democrats consistently have rated health care reform as the most 
>> important of the priorities listed by the president early in his term. 
>> Republicans and unaffiliateds say cutting the federal deficit in half by 
>> the end of his first term is the president's highest priority.
>>  Voters appear to becoming more skeptical about the plan’s chances for 
>> passage this year. Forty-eight percent (48%) still say it’s at least 
>> somewhat likely the plan will become law this year, with 13% who say it’s 
>> very likely. But 41% think that’s unlikely, including 28% who say it’s 
>> not very likely and 13% who feel it’s not at all likely to happen.
>>  Only 21% of voters say the quality of health care in the country will 
>> get better if the plan passes. Fifty-four percent (54%) say quality will 
>> get worse, while 18% expect it to stay about the same.
>>  Fifty-seven percent (57%) say health care costs will go up if the plan 
>> passes. Seventeen percent (17%) say costs will go down, as the authors of 
>> the plan contend. Twenty percent (20%) say health care costs will remain 
>> about the same if the legislation becomes law.
>>  Obama was elected president in November 2008 in part because of his 
>> ability to carry traditionally Republican states like Virginia. But 54% 
>> of Virginia voters now oppose the president’s health care plan.
>>  The congressional mid-term elections are still nearly a year away, but 
>> the health care bill seems to be taking an early toll on Senate Majority 
>> Leader Harry Reid’s chances for reelection. The Nevada Democrat, one of 
>> the leading supporters of the health care plan, was reelected in 2004 
>> with 61% of the vote, but now he trails three potential GOP challengers 
>> in a state when opposition to the plan is stronger than in other parts of 
>> the country.
>>  Although most Americans oppose the health care legislation working its 
>> way through Congress, 42% of voters say the federal government should be 
>> addressing health care reform. Twenty-three percent (23%) prefer to see 
>> reforms at the state government level, while 17% want both the state and 
>> federal government to get into the act.
>>  Still, 47% trust the private sector more than government to keep health 
>> care costs down and the quality of care up. Two-thirds (66%) say an 
>> increase in free market competition will do more than government 
>> regulation to reduce health care costs.
>>  Forty-seven percent (47%) also believe that restricting jury awards for 
>> medical malpractice lawsuits will significantly reduce the cost of health 
>> care in the United States, but the plan working its way through Congress 
>> does not include limits on such lawsuits.
>>  Differences like these help explain the sizable opposition to the health 
>> care plan. Plus 71% of voters nationwide say they’re at least somewhat 
>> angry about the current policies of the federal government. That’s up 
>> five points from September. The overall figure includes 46% who are Very 
>> Angry.
>>
>>
>> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
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