I have gone from opposing single-payer in general, ACA in particular, to moderately supporting the Obama bill. With or without ACA, low income seniors are and will remain the most vulnerable demographic.
The Bush Prescription legislation was passed with a wink and a kick in return for Democratic support of his administration's military "engagements in the ME. The degree of truth in what has become dogma among many on the modern Right is of marginal relevance when one considers the lobby distribution by industry. Pharma is at the top, spending almost a third more than the no. 2 competitor, which is insurance, with BCBS at the top.
Here is the link:
The Bush Prescription legislation was passed with a wink and a kick in return for Democratic support of his administration's military "engagements in the ME. The degree of truth in what has become dogma among many on the modern Right is of marginal relevance when one considers the lobby distribution by industry. Pharma is at the top, spending almost a third more than the no. 2 competitor, which is insurance, with BCBS at the top.
Here is the link:
LOBBYING
Top Industries
Or pick an industry from an alphabetical list
or organized by sector & industry of all 121 profiled.
or organized by sector & industry of all 121 profiled.
| Industry | Total |
|---|---|
| Pharmaceuticals/Health Products | $2,323,394,297 |
| Insurance | $1,659,290,574 |
| Electric Utilities | $1,555,710,459 |
| Business Associations | $1,290,793,552 |
| Computers/Internet | $1,269,039,757 |
| Oil & Gas | $1,223,869,210 |
| Misc Manufacturing & Distributing | $1,067,685,931 |
| Education | $1,050,432,943 |
| Hospitals/Nursing Homes | $1,000,453,611 |
| Civil Servants/Public Officials | $956,045,810 |
| TV/Movies/Music | $937,923,664 |
| Real Estate | $920,866,353 |
| Securities & Investment | $903,207,613 |
| Health Professionals | $882,840,942 |
| Air Transport | $835,111,074 |
| Misc Issues | $735,782,671 |
| Telephone Utilities | $707,395,875 |
| Automotive | $689,862,490 |
| Telecom Services & Equipment | $663,480,550 |
| Defense Aerospace | $598,337,813 |
Crony capitalism crippled the institutional polity in this country. A little larceny never hurt anybody, but we're way beyond that. Choose your own favorite visual for excess.
USA has a strong institutional structure that can be salvaged with some tweaks (term limits) and some fresh blood on the inside. Maybe Marco Rubio is our savior. Maybe not. What is more likely is that the next generation of Washingtonians will be *slightly* better - across the board. One can make a cultural argument that humanity is improving in some sense. (I'm also conditionally supportive of shifting some power back to the states but that too has problems.)
What I like about the "democracy ain't easy" statement is the deeper and fairly profound assertion that humanity will be at each other's throats for some considerable distance into whatever is left of our future. It's what we do. There will be no perfect and no final solution for anything. Democracy isn't a spreadsheet app. The perfect being the enemy of the good etc.
THE REMEDY
Getting back to the action plan, I am convinced that the absolute best thing Washington can do to "course correct" is overhaul the tax code. The trickle-down along multiple vectors would be incalculable. I'm not sure this group can do it but prioritizing tax code reform and following through with implementation would unleash the "animal spirits" in a way that would make the Chinese spit in their tea cups.
Healthcare is not insoluble but it is does qualify as "high maintenance" to use that elegant phrase of endearment.
I would like to see one of two paths take hold. If SCOTUS upholds the mandate, then the healthcare provider enterprises should be highly regulated using an architecture similar to the quasi-private-public models of many utilities.
Alternatively, if the mandate is struck down, then Medicaid should be offered as an option, along with competitive insurance "exchanges" to bring some market-forced cost control into the private healthcare providers (the latter is already part of the current ACA.)
Both approaches should emphasize prevention, which is more important than I initially thought, particularly in controlling obesity-related chronic disease (also part of the current ACA which I initially scorned), and criminal prosecution. There will never be a perfect or permanent solution for fraud but proper emphasis can make that particular career choice more unattractive.
Getting back to the action plan, I am convinced that the absolute best thing Washington can do to "course correct" is overhaul the tax code. The trickle-down along multiple vectors would be incalculable. I'm not sure this group can do it but prioritizing tax code reform and following through with implementation would unleash the "animal spirits" in a way that would make the Chinese spit in their tea cups.
Healthcare is not insoluble but it is does qualify as "high maintenance" to use that elegant phrase of endearment.
I would like to see one of two paths take hold. If SCOTUS upholds the mandate, then the healthcare provider enterprises should be highly regulated using an architecture similar to the quasi-private-public models of many utilities.
Alternatively, if the mandate is struck down, then Medicaid should be offered as an option, along with competitive insurance "exchanges" to bring some market-forced cost control into the private healthcare providers (the latter is already part of the current ACA.)
Both approaches should emphasize prevention, which is more important than I initially thought, particularly in controlling obesity-related chronic disease (also part of the current ACA which I initially scorned), and criminal prosecution. There will never be a perfect or permanent solution for fraud but proper emphasis can make that particular career choice more unattractive.
- ANONYMOUS
