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Talking about Sen. Bingaman on NPR
Sen. Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M. (Photo by Heath Haussamen)
National Public Radio is currently profiling the members of the “Gang of Six” — the bipartisan group of U.S. senators trying to hammer out a compromise on health-care reform. I was on NPR on Saturday morning talking about Democrat Jeff Bingaman – one of those six – for NPR’s profile of New Mexico’s senior senator.
You can listen to the NPR story by clicking here.
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I never said they didn’t Ms. Wedum, I said “let them fail and go bankrupt”. I have never asked for any bailouts or subsidies, if you have a good business and are a competent manager you don’t need them. Is that clear enough?
Dr. J misses, or avoids, the point of my comment. For-profit businesses use every bit of clout they have to get laws passed that allow them to behave irresponsibly, then run to the government to pick up the pieces when they crash. Just like farmers say they hate government intervention, but “don’t take away my subsidy.”
Correction: “Wall Street (yes the same group that just crashed and burned and we, the taxpayers, had to bail out):”
No, “we” didn’t do anything, two incompetent Presidents and Congresses did the bailing out and subsidizing of greed and stupidity with OUR money. Many of us would have chosen to do as free markets should, let them fail and go bankrupt.
I asked Carter Bundy about the cooperatives idea after his speech at the Democratic Party of Otero County Labor Breakfast Saturday. The big difference between something like our Otero County Electric Coop (which actually includes most of Lincoln and parts of Socorro, Chaves, and Eddy counties) and a healthcare cooperative is that the OCEC has a dedicated territory. There is no competition with for-profit electric companies within that territory.
No one is proposing a similar protected territory for healthcare cooperatives. One commenter I read has suggested co-ops based around a particular hospital, which sure doesn’t appeal to me, as I have heard negative comments about all of the hospitals in the area.
So unless there were a NATIONAL healthcare cooperative, which would have sufficient members to have some clout in negotiating with the drug companies, doctors, hospitals, diagnostic clinics, etc, there is no way a co-op could survive without Federal subsidy. And if you are going ot have a National organization, you might as well have the public option.
BTW, here is a link to former insurance executive Wendell Potter’s testimony about the for-profit health insurance companies’ dirty tricks and their incestuous ties to Wall Street (yes the same group that just crashed and burned and we, the taxpayers, had to bail out):
http://commerce.senate.gov/public/_files/PotterTestimonyConsumerHealthInsurance.pdf
Then here’s a link to T. R. Reid’s ’5 Myths about Health Care Around the World.’
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/08/21/AR2009082101778.html