Tuesday, May 26, 2009
He once made it explicitly clear: “I am a proponent of a single-payer universal health care program.” Those were Barack Obama’s words, back when he was an Illinois state senator six years ago. Then, he said it was a matter of the Democrats winning back control of Congress, and the White House, before this ambitious policy could be carried out. But now that the Democrats are in charge, Obama has given up on single-payer, say Bill Moyers and Michael Winship.
Polls show that a majority of Americans are in favor of giving single-payer a chance, but Obama isn’t interested in giving them what they want. Moyers and Winship insist the president is more interested in forging consensus and making nice with the medical industry and insurance companies, who recently promised to voluntarily reduce the skyrocketing costs of health care. This promise, the authors point out, has been uttered before.
“Way, way back in the 1970s, Americans were riled up over the rising costs of health care,” write Moyers and Winship, noting that another Democratic presidential candidate, Jimmy Carter, talked about government clamping down on health care costs. But once Carter got into the White House, pharmaceutical companies, insurance companies, hospitals and doctors promised they would reduce expenses on their own. They never did. In fact, costs rose even higher.
The stranglehold that the industry has had on Washington, through its multi-million-dollar lobbying, shows no signs of loosening today, leaving the nation without the opportunity to fix its health care system.
-Noel Brinkerhoff
Rx and the Single Payer (by Bill Moyers and Michael Winship, Truthout)
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