Current Health Care Reform proposals would give $ billions to Insurance Companies

[JoyAnna]

As bad as the current situation may be, I feel great anxiety at what may emerge as a "reform" with our bought-and-paid-for representatives completely unwilling to even listen to suggestions for single-payer health care. During the presidential campaign, Dennis Kucinich claimed that we already spend more on health care than it would cost to move to a single payer plan, because of the savings in administrative costs and all the profits extracted by insurance and pharmaceutical corporations.

Congress to Transfer Hundreds of Billions in Tax Dollars to the Insurance Industry

Tuesday 16 June 2009
by: Kevin Zeese, t r u t h o u t | Perspective

Single-payer advocates see the current health care reform proposals as a transfer of hundreds of billions of dollars to the health insurance companies. (Photo: Meryl Schenker / Seattle Post-Intelligencer)
Single-payer witnesses show the common-sense path, but Congress is listening to industry donors.

Yesterday, as Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) left the health-care hearing room, he leaned over to me and said:
"I used to sell insurance. The basic rule is the larger the pool the less expensive the health care. Today we have 1,300 separate pools - separate health care plans - and that is why health care is so expensive; 700 pools would be more efficient and less expensive and one pool would be the least expensive. That's why single payer is the answer."
Nothing like common sense.
But, common sense was not on display in the Senate yesterday. Instead, the Senate is seeking a path to the goal of universal coverage by protecting the least-efficient model - the for-profit insurance industry that through waste, fraud, abuse and bureaucracy eats up 31 percent of the cost of health care.
Chris Dodd (D-Connecticut) who chaired the hearing, standing in for the ailing Ted Kennedy, has received $2.1 million from the insurance industry throughout his career, another $547,000 from the pharmaceutical industry and $467,000 from health care professionals. Dodd opened the hearing stating the stark facts:
Americans spend more than $2 trillion on health care every year - more than 18 percent of our GDP. By 2040, 34 cents of every dollar we spend could be on health care. That is not simply unacceptable - it's unsustainable. Premiums and out-of-pocket costs for individuals and families alike continue to skyrocket.
It was evident throughout the day that money was on the minds of the senators. But, they could not look into the face of the obviously most efficient path, single payer. Instead, they were going through contortions to protect their benefactors in the insurance industry.