"Go ask Northrup Grumman or Lockheed Martin or General Dynamics or even Boeing or Booz Allen or any other “beltway bandit” how getting money from the Feds really works. There are well-greased revolving doors between the Pentagon and its contractors. There are stock options and executive positions for high ranking Federal employees. There are 535 people in Congress responsible for allocating budgets, and all 535 are for sale. Most of this infrastructure is already in place for health care too and building the HHS Heptagon shouldn’t take very long. The American President has little to no power over Federal spending, and even less so when it comes to large procurement contracts, as the current occupant of the White House discovered the hard way, during the Lockheed F-35 kerfuffle....
Clearly large health systems will survive and thrive under a Medicare For All law, but how about private health insurance? Future President Bernie says they will all be banned. Is that so? Currently a full third of Medicare beneficiaries are insured and “managed” by a handful of large private health insurers. Medicare is paying those private contractors fixed amounts of money per head for their services. Medicaid is doing the same for most of its beneficiaries, and all military health insurance (TRICARE) is contracted out to the usual suspects. Basically, the vast majority of people covered by public insurance, are really insured by gigantic insurance corporations. Fact: under the hood, taxpayer funded health care is the bread and butter of private health insurance companies."
So her analysis suggests very little difference at all.
The well known revolving door in regard to government and the defense industry is paralleled by the what goes on in the health care and pharmaceutical industry.See here
1 comment:
Medicare for some is already knee deep in corrupt cronyism. It's a vast beast that sucks up money that could be used productively by consumers and businesses. It is generally overlooked that physicians are primary profiteers within the existing system. Last I checked, 7 out of the top 10 best-paid jobs in America were physician specialties; dentists were an eighth. Despite the bile heaped on CEDs, many medical specialists earn more than the average CEO salary.
Post a Comment