Donna Smith (of "SiCKO"): Will We Be Honest in Our Healthcare Reform Effort?

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Published on Thursday, December 4, 2008 by CommonDreams.org
Will We Be Honest in Our Healthcare Reform Effort?
by Donna Smith


I finally heard an honest soul speaking about the healthcare reform efforts thundering ahead in advance of President-elect Obama's inauguration. And that's a big step in the right direction.

Single payer supporters – hundreds of thousands of healthcare professionals, the 90-plus Congressional members, learned people and regular Janes and Jims – who believe in a publicly funded, privately delivered healthcare system have suffered to be at these magnificent "tables" full of selected stakeholders meeting feverishly but fairly quietly to support an already crafted agenda while appearing as though they are vetting all options for the healthcare reform that is decades overdue. Some honesty here would be good.

The bodies continue to pile up like cordwood while the polite conference table inhabitants smile and applaud one another for their ever-so-conciliatory motion to embrace and enhance and entitle the for-profit healthcare insurance companies and the big pharmaceutical companies under the guise of true reform. Jump for joy, we are told, you'll all be able to buy private health insurance. Oh, and they'll be better controlled. Whoopee! A bail-out by any other name would still smell as foul...

So, what was the honest response and explanation I heard? I actually heard a relatively high level Congressional staff member say we cannot consider single payer reform because many members of Congress have a visceral reaction to that sort of reform even being debated or discussed – or God forbid – seriously considered. .......(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.commondreams.org/view/2008/12/04-5

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