Max And Chuck....Listening To The Wrong People On Health Care

Ah, Senators Max Baucus and Chuck Grassley. Two men that control a large portion of how health care reform will happen...or not. We've got to let them know that when it comes to industry lobbyists and the majority of Americans who are screwed by health insurance, the people must prevail.

Obama Ad Highlights McCain's Tax Increase On The Middle Class

John McCain may want to lower taxes, but it is primarily for the rich. He wants to show us he has a health care plan that helps America, but he fails to say how he intends to make us pay for it:

McCain Confesses To Plan Taxing Your Health Care

At the debate on Friday, Barack Obama called out John McCain for wanting to tax people's health care plans they had at their job. Up on stage in front of nearly 60 million people, he dodged Obama's charge. The maverick socialist corporatism believer knows that this will result in many employers' choosing to drop costly plans altogether. Meanwhile the greedy health care industry continues to take in more money. McCain may not have wanted to come clean on Friday, but he admitted to it yesterday on This Week with Stephanopolous.

From Think Progress:

Today, during an interview on ABC’s This Week, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) finally admitted that his health care tax credits would not cover the costs of a comprehensive health insurance plan:

Actually, my position is that it will be, it will give people actually more money to go out and purchase tax - health insurance on their own and only those with the Cadillac gold-plated health insurance policies today are the ones who might suffer from it.

STEPHANOPOULOS: So they would see their taxes go up potentially.

MCCAIN: It depends on, on, on what plan they have. But that’s usually the wealthiest people. Ordinary working Americans have the kind of - or an overwhelming majority have the health insurance plans that this tax credit, refundable tax credit, will actually put more money in their pockets for the purchase of health care than what they had before.

Of course, that is also a lie but when a politician like McCain spews tremendous amounts bullshit on a daily basis, a few nuggets of truth may fall through the cracks. Far from wealthy Cadillac owners, this plan would be a huge burden to the middle class. It would undoubtly serve to reduce the amount of workers that can obtain health insurance while allowing for premiums to stay high for the insurance companies that relentlessly raise their rates every year.

Bush Hates Children Because They Aren't Profitable

This week we saw the expansion of SCHIP pass the House with 265 votes (mostly Democrats in favor) but short of a veto-proof majority. SCHIP stands for the State Children's Health Insurance Program which insures millions of underprivileged kids. Congress wants to expand the successful program to cover an additional three million young Americans. So why does George Bush vow to veto it?

Rockridge Institute explains:

The U.S. House voted overwhelmingly for an expanded children's health care program (SCHIP), 265-159. President George W. Bush has said he will veto any expansion of the program, and supporters fear they will fall short of votes necessary to override Bush's veto. And what's Bush's reason for the veto? Well, SCHIP works, and because it works it may lead the nation toward (gasp!) a health care security plan that doesn't measure the nation's health or moral standing by the size of private health insurance company profits.

Bush has a point. If 10 million American children are made healthy through a government managed program, the next thing you know some more of the 100 million or so uninsured or under-insured Americans might recognize that their health has been sacrificed on the altar of a private insurance industry that didn't even exist 70 years ago.

That's right. The property and life insurance industry didn't want to get into health insurance because they couldn't figure out how to make a profit. Insuring houses was a piece of cake. Only a few burn down, after all. And the companies get all those premiums from all those people whose houses don't burn down. Life insurance worked because premiums paid to a company over a lifetime could be invested, earning more for the company than would have to be paid in death benefits. But health? Heavens, everyone gets sick, everyone ages and weakens. Benefits would be paid continually to everybody who paid premiums. Where's the profit in that?

Ultimately it comes down to the money. Forget the welfare of helpless children, they don't make money for his buddies in the insurance industry. Not only that, but evidence of a good government program doesn't mesh with the typical Republican talking points of less government and the mantra that the market takes care of everyone. Bush doesn't just hate children, he hates programs that work for Americans in general.