You Want Choice In Health Care? Here You Go...

We need to reform health care. We have two basic choices: the progressive choice and the right wing/elitist choice:


A. We can choose a system that has been thoroughly tested and works. Every other advanced nation in the world has managed to guarantee universal health care to all of its citizens, and they have done this at up to half the total cost or more than our current system. So we have any number of examples out there to choose from, all of which are more universal and efficient than what we have now. Some of them have been in place for over 100 years. They are proven, and they work.


B. We can try a free market health care system, which has never been tried in a modern advanced economy, and which all reputable economists and experts say will fail miserably at providing universal access and cost savings. It will require us to eliminate Medicare, Medicaid, the VA system, and all insurance, drug, and medical regulations of any kind. People who can't afford care will be left to die or at the mercy of charity hospitals. Insurers will be free to cancel your policy when you get injured or sick; your only remedy will be to sue them to reinstate it, which will hard to do when you're dead. Doctors and hospitals will be free to botch surgeries or mistreat patients without have to deal with pesky malpractice lawsuits. Insurers will write policies that only lawyers can understand, and which say in the fine print that you are covered only as much as they want you to be, and not a dollar more. Anyone with any serious preexisting condition will find themselves completely unable to buy insurance, which means that only the rich will be treated for expensive diseases. 


For your average American, this would be a complete and total disaster. But there is one group who would benefit from such a system: rich Republicans. You see, they run most of the insurance companies and hospitals and drug companies. They would make plenty of money, and so they would be able to afford the best care in the world. They wouldn't even have to share waiting rooms with poor people, or people of color, or any of the other untouchables who are not, as Sarah Palin puts it, "Real Americans."


So it's probably not surprising that rich Republicans oppose any meaningful reform. Oh, sure, the insurance industry is supporting the current bill, but that's only because they helped write it, and made sure that it included provisions to force all Americans to buy their product. So their free-market philosophy was abandoned as soon as they realized that they could make even more money by forcing Americans to buy crappy policies that would never really pay out. They figured that was a hell of a lot better than the European models, which take it for granted that insurance companies should be non-profit at a minimum, and non-existent as an ideal.


Everyone, even Republicans, agree that our system is broken and needs to change. Progressives and, as polls consistently show, most Americans, want option A. Rich Republicans, the corporate medical/industrial complex, and Tea Baggers who believe people should have to die before getting "handouts" want option B.


Go ahead, pick one.

Fair and Balanced?

Politico.com reports that Fox was helping to rally to the crowd at the 9-12 Tea Bag party:

On Friday, Fox News boasted in a print ad that other network missed the tea party protest on 9/12, despite the fact that CNN, NBC, ABC, and CBS were all there covering it. (CNN shot back in an ad of their own).

But it turns out that while Fox was covering the protest, a Fox producer, at one point, rallied the crowd to cheer while Griff Jenkins was on camera. Media Matters caught this clip a few days back, but now Fox confirms that it was, indeed, a staffer.

This barely even raises an eyebrow these days. Media Matters writes:

Fox News now routinely engages in political advocacy against the Obama administration and the Democratic Congress, and Beck’s promotion of a September 12 march on Washington is the latest example. Network executives have made little effort to hide Fox News’ agenda, with one referring to the network as the “voice of opposition.”

“There is little difference between being the ‘voice of opposition’ and just being the opposition,” said Eric Burns, president of Media Matters. “Since the president’s election, Fox News has become nothing more than the 24/7 media wing of the Republican Party. No political party in American history has had such an enormous megaphone.”

This is journalism? They have their right to free speech and all, but we all be aware that this is not a "news" organization. They are more concerned with making news than reporting on it. One of their employees (Beck) organizes and promotes a rally in Washington. Fox then promotes it constantly through "reporting". One of their producers gets up and rallies the crowd. How is this reporting?

It's probably time to retire that "Fair and Balanced" slogan.