My analysis: corporate managed health care must really hate the idea of a single-payer system, and this must drive the lies and misinformation being spread about any sort of reform. Why? Because, as it stands, the American workers are subsidizing the system and protecting their profits. E.g., if unpaid medical bills were not covered by premiums of the insured, it would cut into profits. On the other hand, if the system was a Canadian-style single-payer system, it would be paid for by a tax system that would, if it were progressive, get revenue from the immensely wealthy managed health care and pharmaceutical corporations. This is a clear motivation for not only the corporations to protect their marketing of our health, but the politicians on both sides of the aisle who are bought and paid for by said corporations.
Health care reform is not just a regulatory and corporate reform, it is a reform of our entire social view of capitalism. Over the last decade we have become profit at any cost capitalists. We forsake the environment, the climate, and our own lives for profit. Just look at the ENRON scandal. Kenney Lay bought up public utilities in California with the help of George W. Bush and the GOP, quite possibly as punishment for supporting Al Gore. Then they turned the lights off. They limited the availability of electric power to more than triple the cost, and thus their profit, resulting in rolling blackouts. And, amazingly enough, Washington blamed the people of California for using too much power.
During the same period, virtually every hospital in America was bought by a managed health care corporation. Pharmaceutical profits ballooned. The Kenney Lay model of capitalism was firmly in place: corner the markets that are most desperately needed by people and screw them. There is no better market than one that people can't live without. And for those with no shame, there's no better place to be.
Health care reform has little chance unless we see the whole picture of what is propping up this monster.
