Michael Moore co-authored a very interesting piece in the Huffington Post this morning that the big boss thought would be prudent to share with everyone. Knowing this audience, Michael Moore stirs up more than just fuzzy feelings.
Have you seen Michael Moore’s new documentary “Capitalism: A Love Story”? I’m waiting for the DVD….and then I will probably take a look at it. No matter what, he can twist a story and bend it to his will. It slightly reminds me of Fox News, taking a legitimate industry such as journalism or creating documentaries and stepping all over the boundaries of fair and balanced reporting. Do you ever find it ironic that a man who makes millions each year, who probably has a short-sighted view of middle-class reality, makes documentaries fighting for the little guy? Which reminds me, have you had a chance to check out the new celebrity health care PSA? But, I digress….
This morning in the Huffington Post, Michael Moore pieced together his 13 problems with the current health care bills that are being tossed around congress. Chad Harris (our CEO) writes in his morning blog; not to sound jaded, but we all know that the “Bills” are all written in board rooms, not in the back rooms of the congress and senate. But to think that our best of the best we send to DC would either be so naive to have the wool pulled over their eyes so easily or are they really just all bought and sold puppets?
But I suppose we’re all being played like puppets right now when it comes to healthcare. Whether you’re standing on the right side of the line with Limbaugh and Beck, or on the left with Maddow and Olberman, the strings are being pulled from all directions. Who knows what to believe!
Michael Moore’s top 13 look like this:
1. No cost controls on insurance companies. The coming sharp increases in premiums, deductibles, co-pays, co-insurance, etc. will quickly outpace any projected protections from caps on out-of-pocket costs.
2. Insurance companies will continue to be able to use marketing techniques to cherry-pick healthier, less costly enrollees.
3. No restrictions on insurance denials of care that insurers don’t want to pay for. In case you missed it, the California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee uncovered data on the California Department of Managed Care website recently that found six of the biggest California insurers rejected, on annual average, more than one-fifth of all claims every year since 2002.
4. No challenge to insurance company monopolies, especially in the top 94 metropolitan areas, where one or two companies dominate, severely limiting choice and competition.
5. A massive government bailout for the insurance industry through the combination of the individual mandate requiring everyone not covered to buy insurance, public subsidies which go for buying insurance, no regulation on what insurers can charge, and no restrictions on their ability to decide what claims to pay.
6. No controls on drug prices. The White House deal with Big Pharma, which won bipartisan approval in the Senate Finance Committee, opposes the use of government leverage to negotiate real cost controls on inflated drug prices.
7. No single standard of care. Our multi-tiered system remains with access to care still determined by ability to pay.
8. Tax on comprehensive insurance plans. That will encourage employers to reduce benefits, shift more costs to employees, promote proliferation of bare-bones, high-deductible plans, and lead to more self-rationing of care and medical bankruptcies.
9. Not universal. Some people will remain uncovered, including those exempted, and undocumented workers, denying them treatment, exposing everyone to communicable diseases and inflating health care costs.
10. No definition of covered benefits.
11. No protection for our public safety net. Public hospitals and clinics will continue to be under-funded and a dumping ground for those the private system doesn’t want. Public monies going to hospitals serving low-income communities will be shifted to subsidies for private insurance.
12. Long delay in implementation. Many reforms don’t go into effect until 2013.
13. Nothing changes in basic structure of the system; health care remains a privilege, not a right.
Which brings us to the next question; is health care a privilege or a right? That will be an interesting post that we’ll leave for another day. In the meantime, leave your comments on the question.
Read more at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/michael-moore/why-the-current-bills-don_b_302483.html
Don’t forget to check out http://www.noinsuranceclub.com for a new way to get health care.
