The Biggest Scam In the History of Mankind

A listener of POTUS on satellite radio called in yesterday afternoon (6/12/12) to express his outrage of the Affordable Health Care Act.  The host suggested that anyone so angry over the law should be able to explain at least 3 things that induced such strong emotions.  The caller simply stated that the law was robbing him of his “freedom and liberty”.  When further asked for a specific of how his liberty was being stolen the caller, a man, said “I’m 60 now, when I’m 70 and maybe need a bypass operation the Government will decide whether I get it or not, no matter how much money I have”.  That was where it ended…how could it continue?

A recent ABC News poll (for whatever it’s worth) indicated that 70% of those polled were not in favor of the Affordable Health Care Act (AHCA).  Other reported polls track in a similar fashion.  This majority opinion is for a law which is almost a year and a half away from being applied in any meaningful way and which the GAO calculates a $500 billion savings of tax dollars over the next 10 years.  It doesn’t take a brain surgeon to realize something else is going on here.  The clear consensus (of who’s ever being polled) is that what we currently have is just fine…thank you very much.  What creates that kind of idiocy?

The unmitigated and truly tragic irony is that what we currently have is everything the critics of AHCA say the new law will create.  Our for-profit health care system which, by accident of history, is mostly tied to employment, contains within it the most inefficient, inequitable, and dreadful services any modern “system” could devise.  It is actually a full-out assault on our liberty, however you define it.  The inefficiency, inequity and mediocre quality are easy to show because they can be quantitatively determined.  Do the research and you’ll find those that argue for the status quo will highlight technical equipment and the desire of foreign doctors to practice in the US.  They chose not to follow the logic that manufacturers and doctors earn multiples of what they can anywhere else.  The statistics tell another story – do the research.  You’ll find the delivery of US health care is just great, as long as you don’t get sick…that’s your 70%. The problem is that the sick in this Country are a powerless minority.  What the 70% fail to realize is that any one of them could find themselves in that minority tomorrow.

What about liberty?  Even if you’re not sick our system penalizes you, if not actually promoting illness through anxiety.  Millions do not change jobs because of the fear of loss of health benefits. The will often chose jobs they don’t prefer for the same reason. There is a constant restriction on the choice of providers due to those not associated with one’s plan. Participants of plans are virtually at risk if they travel around the US, not so if they happen to be traveling around Europe or most Asian countries. There is a helpless submission to the modification of an employer provided plan including changes in benefits and cost.  And the cost…the cost is so mind-boggling high that logic would lead you to expect the streets to be mobbed in protest.  What’s going on?  Why the passivity?

Those on the receiving end of the $1.8 to $2.4 trillion annual transfer of wealth have used their resources to affectively buy an entire political party and convince you that any change to our health care system to reduce cost, increase access, and improve quality is great…as long as nothing changes.  The AHCA was originally a Republican idea.  They don’t really have any major problems with it.  They primarily wanted to make sure the “public option” was not part of it, as that would have been a possible first step to a single payer system.  They succeeded in that. Opposition to the law now is more political.  Call it “Socialism”, convince the stupid that their freedom, liberty, and American pride is at stake and ride that pony to the next election - simple. They even were able to label the law “Obamacare”, which had already been successfully used in Conservative circles as a negative term.  Most Conservatives don’t even know the actual name of the law. The term eventually was picked up by everyone; news media, progressives, and moderates included.  It’s one thing for you to name the neighbor you hate “the jerk”.  It’s quite another to get everyone else using the same name, even those who like the guy.  You know when I got a chance to know him I really like the jerk. These guys are good…but then look at the audience.

The AHCA will do little to change our broken health care system except increase access.  The most important thing it did, however, was to take us one step away from a completely dysfunctional system.  The Conservative Right and their very large moneyed interests that reap the benefits of that dysfunctional system have pulled off the biggest scam in the history of the world.  They have convinced a huge plurality of Americans to act against their own self interest.  Americans under 40 better wake up and realize that one person’s short term gain can be another person’s long term nightmare.