Obamacare “Taking a Failed Market System to a Whole New Level”

Share

http://www.accuracy.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/acf.jpgKEVIN ZEESE, kzeese at earthlink.net, @KBZeese
MARGARET FLOWERS, M.D., mdpnhp at gmail.com, @MFlowers8
Zeese and Flowers wrote “Obamacare: The Biggest Insurance Scam in History,” just published by truth-out.org.

The piece states: “The ACA [Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare] takes our failed market-based system to a whole new level by forcing the uninsured to purchase private health plans and using the government to sell and subsidize them.

“Sadly, most Americans are being manipulated into supporting the ACA and do not even know they are being bamboozled. … But it is the insurance companies that are realizing windfall profits from the Obamacare con even as it falters.

“The mass media is focused on the technical problems with getting the insurance exchanges up and running. These problems result from the complexity of the law and outsourcing of services to corporations that are often more costly and less effective than government. In comparison, in 1965 when Medicare started, everyone 65 and over was enrolled within six months – using index cards.

“If all U.S. residents were in one plan, Medicare for all, rather than the ACA’s tiered system that institutionalizes the class divides in the United States, not only would the health system be fairer and improve health outcomes, but it would be less bureaucratic, less costly and easier to implement. The Medicare-for-all approach considers health care to be a public good, something that all people need, like schools, roads and fire departments.”

The piece also notes that Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen “Sebelius is seeking funds from groups like the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and H&R Block. And the Hill noted, ‘Obama himself made a vague but personal appeal for a close partnership with insurers, which some in the industry saw as a precursor to direct fundraising pitches.’ In April 2013, ‘Obama reportedly sat in for an hour-long meeting he was initially not scheduled to attend and told insurance executives that the White House and the industry were now “joined at the hip” trying to make the healthcare law work.’”

Zeese and Flowers host ClearingtheFOGRadio.org and co-direct It’s Our Economy. Flowers is former congressional fellow for Physicians for a National Health Program and is on the board of Healthcare-Now.