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PrintMarch 10, 2010
Obama trashes insurance companies again in health care speech
President Obama speaking at a hand-picked town hall meeting in Philadelphia on Monday:
We can't have a system that works better for the insurance companies than it does for the American people. We need to give families and businesses more control over their own health insurance and that's why we need to pass health care reform. Not next year, not five years from now, not ten years from now, but now.The health care bill now before the House of Reps will increase insurance company profits, increase premiums, and most definitely will not help the American people.
Giving families and businesses more control over their own health insurance cannot happen with this massive government takeover of health care.
Dr. Marcia Angell, senior lecturer in the Department of Social Medicine at Harvard University Medical School, spoke with Bill Moyers on March 5. He told us that Dr. Angell is in favor of "single payer" nationalized health system, the kind of system that Obama favored before he became president.
According to Dr. Angell, Obama is reneging on the type of health care reform he promised during his campaign.
BILL MOYERS: So, has President Obama been fighting as hard as you wished?President Obama continues to speak through both sides of his mouth. He lacks consistency in his message; he said one thing before he was president, then the opposite just yesterday.
MARCIA ANGELL: Fighting for the wrong things and too little, too late. He gave away the store at the very beginning by compromising. Not just compromising, but caving in to the commercial insurance industry and the pharmaceutical industry. And then he stood back for months while the thing just fell apart. Now he's fighting, but he's fighting for something that shouldn't pass. Won't pass and shouldn't pass.
What this bill does is not only permit the commercial insurance industry to remain in place, but it actually expands and cements their position as the lynchpin of health care reform. And these companies they profit by denying health care, not providing health care. And they will be able to charge whatever they like. So if they're regulated in some way and it cuts into their profits, all they have to do is just raise their premiums. And they'll do that.
Not only does it keep them in place, but it pours about 500 billion dollars of public money into these companies over 10 years. And it mandates that people buy these companies' products for whatever they charge. Now that's a recipe for the growth in health care costs, not only to continue, but to skyrocket, to grow even faster.
Obama has been doing business with the insurance companies, Wall Street, and big business since he came on board. They are all he cares about.
