Hurting the victims, aiding the culprits, or, yes another health care post.

NPR is using the exact reasons we need substantive health care reform to argue against it.

I made the mistake of turning on NPR this morning, and heard their "health care debate" piece. What to say? To paraphrase: point 1) the government might have to tax high-cost health plans. point 2) Health costs are going up so rapidly for so many that pretty much everyone has high cost health plans. conclusion 3) Health care reform will your life worse because THEY'RE GOING TO TAX YOUR HEALTH PLAN. TAX! TAX!

What's wrong with this? Well, for starters, individuals already pay taxes on any health plans that they purchase themselves, essentially. I don't remember this being mentioned, minor problem.

Big problem--what do you think the debate is about, what are we fighting for? Well, the average American who's paying attention is hoping for, uh, affordable health care, assuming they can even find a plan, the plan isn't cancelled out from under them when they get sick, and the illness is covered by the plan in spite of preexisting conditions. (You see, the NPR piece admitted that health care costs are skyrocketing, but didn't discuss why.) The Insurance companies are raking in huge profits, want those profits to continue, plus, because of the profits, they have masses and masses of money to spread around to smother health care reform in its cradle. To extend the metaphor beyond the breaking point - with dollars!

See the sad, sad irony here? Insurance companies are strangling the average person's ability to get decent health care --because they have monopolist/monopsonist power (see post below, here). They are then turning around and using all that blood money (is that a bit over the top? Blood money?) squeezed from you and I to convince us, the victims, the American people, to act in our own very very worst interest. Yes, I understand how convoluted that sentence is.