To listen to my March 10 Alternative Visions radio show analysis of the just announced details of Congress proposals to repeal and gut the Affordable Care Act (and the $500 billion in tax cuts for corporations and the wealthy that it includes), go to:
http://alternativevisions.podbean.com
or to:
http://prn.fm/?s=Alternative+Visions
SHOW ANNOUNCEMENT:
Jack Rasmus dissects the Republican/Ryan proposal of this past week to repeal and replace the Obamacare Act. The proposal is first and foremost a $500 billion a year tax cut for corporations and the wealthiest 1%, as they no longer have to contribute anything to the Ryan-Republican repeal plan. Other provisions of the proposals are described, including the freeze and dismantling of the Medicaid elements, the end of all mandates, ending the sliding scale of in come for credits, etc. This is a tax cut bill, as well as a further privatization of healthcare bill, and should be viewed as the first of a sequence of medical related bills that will make everyone ‘pay more for less’. Next Trump-Republican target: Medicare. Rasmus reviews the pluses and minuses of the Obama ACA, and why it was doomed from the start due to inability to control health cost increases rising since Bill Clinton’s concessions to health insurers. The show concludes with an analysis of the origins of escalating health costs since the 1990s, which have their roots in health insurance companies’ and drug companies’ mergers and acquisitions drive to buy out competitors, and Wall St.’s requiring more profitability in exchange for loans to buy up their competitors. The result for a quarter century has been increasing privatization and rationing of health care costs and services. And it’s about to become worse. (Next week: The Federal Reserve’s next interest rate hike next week and its impact)
Interesting post. Very intrigued by what Bill Clinton did real allowing the health care insurance industry to consolidate, driving up prices and helping create the long chain of events that have led to the debacle of today. Also it is of interest, and I think this comes from Noam Chomsky, that the unions in Canada fought for health care for all, unlike the unions in America who really only cared about their members. If they had originally taken the Canadian position, the unions would not have been as easily pushed back on health care benefits in this country.