For-profit health care industry is buying the 'Blue Wave'

The number one issue on the voters' minds is health care, or the lack of, and that has the for-profit health care industry nervous.
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So in an effort to control the narrative, they have gotten organized.

Health insurance and drug companies have formed a coalition aimed at "building on the strength of employer-provided health coverage," according to the groups—a transparent attempt to defeat the momentum building among Medicare for All advocates, using attack ads and research biased against a single-payer system.
The coalition, called the Partnership for America's Health Care Future and including the industry groups America's Health Insurance Plans (AHIP), the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA), the American Medical Association, and the Federation of American Hospitals, is being taken not as a significant threat to Sanders' plan and a similar proposal in the House, but as evidence that the country is closer than ever to implementing single-payer healthcare.

Medicare For All (MFA) is a direct threat to their profits, so it's no surprise they are fighting back. Specifically, Partnership for America's Health Care Future is spending big bucks purchasing the DCCC, and that investment has been paying off.

A new Tarbell analysis shows the health care industry as a whole is giving generously to leaders of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee....The industry investment appears to be paying off. Very few of the candidates endorsed by the DCCC in 2018 primary races support the idea of a national government health care program — dubbed “Medicare for all” by champions of the proposal, including Sen. Bernie Sanders (D-Vt.).
...The DCCC, Tarbell found, has adopted an agenda that is nearly identical to a health care industry-friendly bloc within the Democratic Party: the New Democrat Coalition (NDC) — which has long been hostile toward a “Medicare for all” type system.

75 percent of Democrats, and 59 percent of the general public, support MFA, yet the DCCC remains opposed to MFA.
The DCCC has not endorsed a single Our Revolution candidate.
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In May, Third Way, the New Democrats’ most prominent think tank, released a strategy memo called “Winning on Health Care.” It warns that “Republicans are salivating to use single-payer as a cudgel,” in the elections because, Third Way contends, the proposal “is not as popular as advocates suggest.”

In fact, the opposite is true.
The Republicans have totally screwed up the health care debate, and are terrified of its consequences.
This article is from the right-wing Forbes.

The GOP’s effort to repeal Obamacare and roll back Medicaid expansion helped make surprisingly close a race for a Republican-leaning Ohio U.S. House seat that has yet to be decided almost a week after the election. Even Republicans admit that the unpopularity of Donald Trump and the GOP-led Congress' effort to take away healthcare spells bad electoral news.

“There’s no question that people sent a message . . . to Republicans … knock it off,” Republican Ohio Gov. John Kasich told MSNBC’s Chuck Todd last week on MTP Daily. “(And) hey and we’re going to kill Obamacare which means you aren’t going to have any healthcare,” Kasich added.
...Protect Our Care says all but three incumbent Republican U.S. House members who have Congressional races rated “toss up” or “lean Republican” by the Cook Political Report voted in May 2017 for the GOP House health repeal bill, The American Health Care Act.

The unpopularity of the GOP's efforts to kill poor Americans in order that the health care can garner more profits, has left them silent on the #1 issue on the voters minds. This is the exact opposite of what the Third Way is saying.
If you need any more proof, just check out this article from Breitbart of all places.

Republicans have failed to replace Obamacare with anything.
...
After that failure, Republican leaders have been AWOL on the issue. Democrats have filled that vacuum by telling voters that the GOP would prefer to get rid of their health insurance altogether.

Democrats broke the health care system — perhaps deliberately, in a “Trojan Horse” effort to make socialized medicine the only alternative. Still, voters may trust them more than Republicans simply because the GOP is not even talking about what it wants to do. Republicans are not showing that they care about the health care costs hitting working families — many of which provided the key votes in Trump’s 2016 victory.

If they want to hold onto Congress, and fulfill the promise of that extraordinary election, Republicans have to find a coherent healthcare policy — and quickly.

Republicans already have a coherent healthcare policy. It's called Profits Before People.
It's real simple and obvious. It just doesn't sell well.
It's interesting that Breitbart speaks more truth than the DCCC.
As for "socialized medicine", I once again turn to Forbes.

Anyone with a pre-existing condition is at risk, they say. If Republicans have their way and you’re sick, you’ll face higher premiums, skimpier coverage and perhaps no insurance at all.

So, how did Republicans become vulnerable to these kinds of charges? Because they are partly true.

Obamacare is essentially private-sector socialism.

There is no such thing as "private-sector socialism". It's known as "corporate welfare".
Even while the GOP seeks to undermine Obamacare, the insurance industry is boosting it's advertising for Obamacare products.
Once again we must turn to the right-wing press to find some truth about the health care debate.

Finally, remember that George Mason University’s Mercatus Center Koch Brothers study that showed that MFA would actually save $2 trillion?

Well, factcheck.org recently contacted the author of the paper, Charles Blahous, a senior research strategist at the Mercatus Center who once was the deputy director of President Bush’s National Economic Council. He says the two proponents of a universal health care system are distorting the findings of his paper.

In an email to FactCheck.org, Blahous said he didn’t highlight that figure because he doesn’t think it’s realistic.

As Blahous wrote in the fourth sentence of his abstract, “It is likely that the actual cost of M4A would be substantially greater than these estimates, which assume significant administrative and drug cost savings under the plan, and also assume that health care providers operating under M4A will be reimbursed at rates more than 40 percent lower than those currently paid by private health insurance.”

That's interesting, and would be devastating, except for one small detail: it's total bullsh*t.

One of the claims that keeps popping up in the coverage of the study is that the Sanders plan would cut provider payments by 40 percent. This is absolutely untrue, and the study does not say this. Although the report’s author, Charles Blahous, conveniently omitted the actual provider payment cut, a reverse-engineering of his tables indicates that it is only 10.6 percent, not 40 percent.

Why, oh why, would someone deliberately misrepresent their own study?
The answer is at the very end of the factcheck article.

The Koch brothers have donated millions of dollars to George Mason University’s Mercatus Center, and Charles Koch sits on the center’s board of directors.

Documents published earlier this year show the Koch brothers, at one point at least, used their donations to gain influence over the hiring and firing of professors at the Mercatus Center...

Blahous told us his work is not influenced by any donors to the Mercatus Center.

Sure Blahous. We believe you.

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boriscleto's picture

It's all owned by non-profits or the state. The #1 employer in Syracuse is the Upstate University Health System. St. Joseph's Hospital Health Center isn't far behind at #3 (absorbed by Trinity Health). Crouse Hospital is #5 and Loretto (nursing homes, elder care) is #6. When you add in the #2 employer Syracuse University you have 5 organization, that employ 23000 people, and pay no taxes other than payroll taxes.

Of the top 5 only the #4 employer (Wegmans Supermarkets, 3700 employees) pays taxes...

The VA Medical center is the #11 employer (1400). The Catholic Church is #16 (1000) and Excellus Blue Cross / Blue Shield is #19 (900). No taxes from those leaches either...So of the top 20 employers, 8 are non-profits...

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" In the beginning, the universe was created. This has made a lot of people very angry, and is generally considered to have been a bad move. -- Douglas Adams, The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy "

@boriscleto
They're "not for profits". They make tons of profit, they just call it something else, and it doesn't go to stockholders.

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Please help support caucus99percent!

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The keyword is dead.

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"Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich."--Napoleon

divineorder's picture

@dkmich

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A truth of the nuclear age/climate change: we can no longer have endless war and survive on this planet. Oh sh*t.

@divineorder
since 1993, when Hillary had the police drag them out of the room.

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On to Biden since 1973

The Aspie Corner's picture

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Modern education is little more than toeing the line for the capitalist pigs.

Guerrilla Liberalism won't liberate the US or the world from the iron fist of capital.

snoopydawg's picture

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Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.

arendt's picture

@dkmich

I've been enjoying MMH for years. This is the first time she's named the owner of one of those obscene POSs.

The DeVos clan - Betsu, Eric Prince - are up there with the Koch Bothers as proto-Nazi scum. Hope they don't retaliate against MMH.

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Scary 10-year total costs of health care!
Look how much your taxes will go up!

It would take a college student about 5 minutes Googling to completely puncture any lie Blahous or any of the Kochs' flying monkeys will dream up. They have no case to make, which is why they will exhume Harry and Louise to scaremonger the public relentlessly, with maybe the most expensive political campaign in history if MFA proponents get close enough to pass it.

But Medicare is a lot more popular than Aetna or United Healthcare, and with damn good reason. Pulling back the curtain to show people who's paying to scare them is the best way to turn their money against them.

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Since much of America's health care costs are paid by employers, it is employers who will pocket much of the savings from MFA, but it is workers who will pay most of the taxes to support MFA. Thus, if you still have a "good" job your taxes will go up while your employer will reap the savings. And the peeople who will fall into that class are the same as the people who are allowed to vote.

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On to Biden since 1973

divineorder's picture

@doh1304 don’t have a good job?

Wonder how this will turn out?

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A truth of the nuclear age/climate change: we can no longer have endless war and survive on this planet. Oh sh*t.

@doh1304 They can devise a system that retains private health insurance. Those who want to, may opt out of the single payer system. There is a private sector in Britain even though there is no opt out.

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It's simply too painful to acknowledge, even to ourselves that we've been taken. Once you give a charlatan power over you, you almost never get it back. Carl Sagan

@doh1304 that the employer portion that is being paid to insurance would now be paid directly to the employee.

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dfarrah

@doh1304
... even though it's a result of current tax law, where employers write off health benefit expenditures. Their business taxes would go up, assuming they couldn't find another way to avoid paying them.

Part of the funding mechanism of single payer will undoubtedly be an increase in payroll or other taxes charged to employers, to recapture their current contribution and to include the Wal-Marts who have acted as free riders. Supplemental policies that provide free mints on hospital bed pillows would undoubtedly be included as inducements in sectors which still compete for workers.

Some people would no doubt pay more: younger, healthy, well compensated workers would pay more in taxes than they currently pay in identifiable health care expenditures. The wet-behind-the-ears libertarian set would fume. Tough shit. The idea of insurance is that the healthy pay for the sick, and in turn are cared for in their turn when they get sick. This used to be thought part of the social compact, and it's time to revive the notion that we're all in this together.

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Benny's picture

From a couple of days ago a news item in Yahoo finance!:

Alphabet GOOGL plans to invest $375 million in the health insurance startup, Oscar Health, in a bid to strengthen its presence in the healthcare sector.

The investment plan comes about months after Oscar Health raised $165 million in a funding round. Among the participants of the funding were Alphabet’s venture firm Capital G and life sciences division Verily, taking Oscar’s valuation to $3.2 billion.

Reportedly, Alphabet now roughly owns 10% share in the privately-held Oscar.
Founded in 2012, Oscar Health is an online health insurer company. Its website has an online search function that leads patients toward doctors per the symptoms they type using natural language. The insurance company aims to make health insurance pricing clearer for patients, while giving doctors more flexible payment models.

We believe the latest move will expand Alphabet’s share in the healthcare market, which will aid in reinforcing its market position.

Coming to price performance, Alphabet’s shares have returned 30.6% in the past 12 months, outperforming the industry’s growth of 4.2%.

Joshua Kushner is one of the co-founders of Oscar Health. His brother is Jared Kushner.

More cocktail parties at the Hamptons and the Bay Area.

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One equal temper of heroic hearts, Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will. To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.--Tennyson

@Benny that group comprised of Bezos, Dimon, and Buffet - they want to solve all of the medical problems.

Pathetic.

If there are taxpayer funds involved, these guys are always ready to suck up as much as they can.

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dfarrah

k9disc's picture

B-r-i-b-e-r-y.

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“Tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat.” ~ Sun Tzu

Brett Wilkins's picture

Blue waves have broken, and will continue to break, upon the reef of shattered promises. Making the mountaintop requires selling out and dancin' with the one who brung ya.

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