An interesting perspective: The majority of American voters want X. Corporations want Y. Because the corporations have the money to lobby and donate to politicians, what we get is Y. Is this how we want the system to work?

Banning lobbying could save American democracy

The American people are now competing with a giant cash machine that pumps over a million dollars a day into preventing a public healthcare option from ever becoming a reality. According to the most recent CBS/New York Times poll, 72% of Americans want a government-run healthcare system, and yet those Americans don’t have the reach and access bought by the private healthcare industry…

The whole subject of healthcare, and how it has become so backward in America through lobbying, is a source of amazement. This first article is fascinating. It is an in depth report on McAllen, Texas, where medicare is spending $15,000 per person on health care expenses (twice the national average). The reason why it is so high is surprising:

What a Texas town can teach us about health care – “McAllen has another distinction, too: it is one of the most expensive health-care markets in the country. Only Miami—which has much higher labor and living costs—spends more per person on health care. In 2006, Medicare spent fifteen thousand dollars per enrollee here, almost twice the national average. The income per capita is twelve thousand dollars. In other words, Medicare spends three thousand dollars more per person here than the average person earns…”

Other perspectives:

1) A singular solution for healthcare – “First, single-payer plans eliminate the $300 billion to $400 billion that insurance companies spend annually in administrative overhead and waste. Second, single-payer plans are best positioned to take on the enormous challenge of reducing or eliminating the financial incentives that have led to so much overtreatment and undertreatment…”

2) Sick around America – “As the worsening economy leads to massive job losses—potentially forcing millions more Americans to go without health insurance—FRONTLINE travels the country examining the nation’s broken health care system and explores the need for a fundamental overhaul. Veteran FRONTLINE producer Jon Palfreman dissects the private insurance system, a system that not only fails to cover 46 million Americans but also leaves millions more underinsured and at risk of bankruptcy…”

3) Towering Medical Bills Leave Many Americans Bankrupt – “In 2007, 62 percent of all personal bankruptcies were linked to medical bills. That’s nearly 20 percent more than reported in 2001. And in most cases, those who sought bankruptcy protection had middle-class earnings; nearly 80 percent were covered by health insurance…”

4) CEO Compensation: Who Said Health Care is in a Financial Crisis? – “using United Healthcare as an example — your insurance company paid their CEO — one man — $324,000,000 over a recent five year period…”

5) Yes, we can – “Get more or less universal coverage, that is. The CBO scoring on an incomplete bill sent everyone into a tizzy — and also led to an avalanche of bad reporting, with claims that it said terrible things about the public option. (There was no public option in the bill.)”

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