Sick In America

Bill Moyers is one of the few old-school journalists who asks tough questions and get the answers that most Americans need to hear. It might explain why he's no longer a mainstream journalist and is found on PBS. Watch both youtube interviews, or go to pbs.org and watch the entire 36 minute interview with former CIGNA health insurance exec Wendell Potter. Potter recently left CIGNA and is speaking out on the health care industry's grip on the lawmakers of this nation. He speaks candidly about the industry's attempt to discredit film maker Michael Moore's documentary Sicko.

Partially through the interview, Moyers plays devil's advocate and asks Potter what is wrong with a company making a profit and, although accurate, Potter's answer excluded a crucial component of the problem with health care in America. What insurance providers are doing is the equivalent to selling tickets to patrons to see a play and then canceling the performance and refusing to return the cost of the ticket to the patrons. Or more accurately selling you an automobile and when you come to pick it up neither giving you the automobile nor a refund. There isn't a business on the planet other than health care insurers who can blatantly get away with such criminal behavior. And both the chambers of congress, and possibly even the executive office of government might be in the hands of these merchants of death. I agree there isn't anything wrong with a company turning a profit, it' just that people shouldn't have to die in order for them to do so. I believe it is possible for health *(un)insurers to make a profit without harming people-it's just that they've gotten extremely indolent and would prefer to rob people instead of figuring out ways to earn a profit in a highly competitive market.

It has always been my contention that certain industries cannot afford to be privatized. In an environment where company's must struggle to survive, there is no place other health (un)insurers could have arrived than where they are today. The relationship between Wall Street and health insurers is equivalent to the relationship between a Las Vegas bookie and a fixed NCAA basketball game and conglomerates shouldn't be allowed to profit from the intentional mismanagement of a health care system. The same RICO laws utilized to bring down the likes of John Gotti and Sammy 'The Bull' Gravano should be used to break the stranglehold health care insurers have on congress.



*I call them (un)insurers because in my estimation you pay them a lot of money over the years, only to have them uninsure you once you get sick. It ultimately boils down to you paying them huge premiums for them to tell you when you get sick you're uninsured. You can opt out of being insured and know that for free.

TPOKW?