Invest Intelligence When It Realy Matters
The Big Secret about U.S. Healthcare (UPDATED)
UPDATE: article re-edited on September 30, 2010.
Apparently, the use of scare tactics works well for a population whose minds have been hijacked by the corporate-controlled media establishment. For instance, a few years ago, President Bush and his neo-con clan used the WMD scare tactic in order to justify the invasion of Iraq. More scare tactics were used to pass the unconstitutional Patriot Act. (1) (2)
A few years later, as the financial system got stuck in the game of musical chairs, Henry Paulson and the Federal Reserve bank used the “too big to fail” scare tactic in order to justify the bailout of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which opened the door for the unconstitutional passage of TARP.
As we all know, the banking cartel labeled “too big to fail,” is much bigger today, while Fannie and Freddie have no real future in their current form. Meanwhile, financial reform has been a complete joke. (3) (4)
Even media celebrities have used scare tactics as a way to convince Main Street that they must own gold, as these hacks land huge endorsement deals. (5)
The same approach of using scare tactics has also worked exceptionally well for the healthcare industry. Whenever republicans want to attack proposed changes to America's uncompetitive, mediocre, wasteful and costly healthcare system, they scare Americans with warnings of socialized medicine.
However, the facts reveal a much different picture than that painted by politicians and others who have been bought off by the industry. As the data reveals, the vast majority of developed nations with universal healthcare score higher than the U.S. in the most critical measures of medical care. I have discussed these discouraging realities on many occasions. (6) (7)
Whenever democrats offer solutions to America's broken healthcare system, they focus on big government. This too favors the industry because it adds more tax dollars for the medical-industrial complex to siphon off.
Either way, the fundamental problems found within the U.S. healthcare system are not being addressed. For instance, politicians never mention the need for drug price caps as a manner by which to curtail healthcare inflation, nor do they mention the need to refocus medical delivery on prevention. It is widely known that more than 60% of all healthcare expenditures in the U.S. arise from preventable medical conditions.
Finally, politicians certainly would never propose jail time for CEOs whose companies have been found guilty of defrauding Medicare and Medicaid (tax payer fraud). As the dotcom charade and the current economic fiasco have confirmed, the U.S. has become a nation where CEOs are immune from criminal prosecution. (8) (9) (10)
Moreover, Washington remains determined to protect the excessive profits of the medical-industrial complex because they have bought off virtually every politician in the nation. We see a similar alliance between Washington and other industries, as expressed by what’s known as free trade. This destructive and highly unfair strategy has resulted in the loss of millions of jobs over the past several years. (11)
Regardless of the position held by democrats or republicans, the fact is that the healthcare industry dictates healthcare policy. As a result, the industry has created a path of unsustainable healthcare economics at the expense of tax payers. Yet, as the data shows, tax payers fund the majority of annual healthcare expenditures. Thus, tax dollars account for a large bulk of the profits enjoyed by the medical-industrial complex. (12)