Saturday, August 01, 2009

More Health Care Stuff

Timothy Noah has a good column at Slate today on the health care finance legislation making its agonized way through Congress. He correctly points out that the legislative process is essentially a swamp of gatekeepers who control legislation, always in someone's interest but that someone is not always the public. Usually, the someone is someone with a lot of money and is willing to share it with the members of Congress. Since so few members control so much, it's easy to use large sums of money strategically and effectively.

Which is why I do not have much faith that the Great Health Care Debate and Legislative Medicine Show of 2009 will change much. The large profits will remain for the medical-financial complex and millions of Americans will remain uninsured. We had this debate 16 years ago. I'm pretty sure 2009 will not be the last time. Nor do I think we'll be waiting 16 years.

Back to Timothy Noah, he is writing some of the most informative, intelligent work on the health care debate. You can read them here. Bad Tux, the Snarky Penguin is also writing well on the topic.

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1 Comments:

Blogger Todd Tyrtle said...

Though I tend to be a bit cynical about the prospect of the US getting what it needs health care wise due to the meddling of industry, take heart. It *is* possible. I've been living in Canada for five years now (moved here from the states). First off, the care we've received has been exceptional and without the headaches of HMOs. But it wasn't until I read this article. It was a nearly 40 year battle to get to where we are with many of the same players bullying here as are bullying there.

What I don't understand is why so many otherwise compassionate Americans are so against a system that ensures that everyone gets cared for - not just the privileged who have insurance and whose insurance decides it is OK to pay.

7:18 AM  

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