Media Attacking Single-Payer Are Getting Paid Under Current Health System
Media Attacking Single-Payer Are Getting Paid Under Current Health System
By Adam Johnson
Jan 30 2016
With the first nomination contest only two days away, the corporate media reaction to Bernie Sanders surprisingly strong campaign, while not reaching Jeremy Corbyn-level hysteria, has reached a noticeable panicone marked by lets-not-upset-the-base qualified criticism and exquisitely curated concern-trolling. The most cynical argument being advanced is that Sanders support for a single-payer health program is a pie-in-the-sky fantasy, in contrast to the pragmatic incrementalism promised by Hillary Clinton.
Seth Ackerman over at Jacobin wrote a good breakdown Monday of these attacks, detailing why the gatekeeper left medias handwringing over Sanders single-payer proposal is disingenuous ideology-policing rather than an objective analysis based on the actual policy merits of the plan. The arguments being made by criticsspecifically Ezra Klein and Matthew Yglesias at Vox, and by the Washington Postbasically boil down to two objections: Sanders single-payer proposal is not realistic and too vague.
As well as debunking these two central claims, Ackerman notes the political convenience of pundits suddenly bashing single-payer who used to note its advantages. Its smart and well worth a read as a policy primer, but theres something lingering behind the anti-single payer arguments that goes beyond mere base management and pro-establishment bias.
Almost all of the outlets Ackerman references as pushing back on single payer are owned by large media corporations with sizable investments in private healthcare and its current neoliberal iteration, the Affordable Care Act. They have not just a political and ideological incentive to maintain private healthcare, but a tremendous financial one as well.
More:
http://fair.org/home/media-attacking-single-payer-are-getting-paid-under-current-system/
JimDandy
(7,318 posts)It's our health on the line but their money on the line.