Health Care ‘Co-Ops’: Strategy for Killing Real Health Care Reform
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U.S. House and Senate health care reform bills that have won committee approval contain a public health insurance option as a vital component and that, says a new report released this morning, “is considerable cause for celebration.”
The report’s author, Yale University professor Jacob S. Hacker, also warns that efforts to push health care cooperatives, which recently have been floated as an alternative to a public option, are meant
“to kill the public plan and, with it, the prospect of an effective competitor to consolidated insurance companies that have too often failed to provide affordable health security.”
The report, commissioned by the Institute for America’s Future, details how a strong public health insurance plan is critical to successfully achieving the goals of health reform—lower costs, higher quality and guaranteed health security for all Americans.
AIG, CNBC: Poster Demons for a Bigger Problem
It took awhile, but now the public is angry—reeaaalllly angry—over the economic wreckage Wall Street has wrought on our nation. Much of the outrage is directed toward AIG, the insurance giant that’s giving billions in taxpayer money in the form of bonuses to the same egregiously overpaid wretches who brought the company to its knees. New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo just revealed that AIG paid 73 employees bonuses of $1 million or more; 11 of whom are no longer there.
But the “messenger” also is getting its comeuppance, with questions now raised about why CNBC acted as cheerleader for major financial wizards even as they were summoning chaos in our financial markets.
