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Our message to Steve Nelson and UnitedHealthcare is simple: ... your greed is going to end.
Link to tweet
How the health-insurance industry is working to pull Democrats away from Medicare-for-all
At a recent private event with employees, an executive at UnitedHealth Group said, "The last thing you want to do is become the poster child during the presidential campaign."
To some political insiders, this lobbying push from private health-care companies underscores the enormous obstacles facing Medicare-for-all legislation and other large government interventions in health care. When Obama pushed the Affordable Care Act, Democrats tried working with private insurers and hospitals to minimize industry opposition to the legislation. Health insurance companies at the time helped defeat a proposed “public option” that would have competed with private plans.
“The insurance industry is still a very powerful force within the political process,” said Jim Manley, who served as an aide to former Senate majority leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.). “Having them on the opposite side of single-payer will be a very difficult obstacle to overcome.”
But single-payer advocates have argued for the necessity of their more radical proposal to transform the American health system, noting that the United States spends about twice as much per person as peer nations on health care despite lagging behind significantly on several key health indexes. To supporters of single-payer, the frenzy of federal lobbying against Medicare-for-all highlights the need to upend the health-care status quo.
“When the people begin organizing against private insurance, the lonely insurance executives turn to their only friends: the elected officials beholden to their cash,” said Tim Faust, an activist for single-payer health care.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2019/04/12/weve-done-lot-more-than-you-would-think-how-health-insurance-industry-is-working-pull-democrats-away-medicare-for-all/
At a recent private event with employees, an executive at UnitedHealth Group said, "The last thing you want to do is become the poster child during the presidential campaign."
To some political insiders, this lobbying push from private health-care companies underscores the enormous obstacles facing Medicare-for-all legislation and other large government interventions in health care. When Obama pushed the Affordable Care Act, Democrats tried working with private insurers and hospitals to minimize industry opposition to the legislation. Health insurance companies at the time helped defeat a proposed “public option” that would have competed with private plans.
“The insurance industry is still a very powerful force within the political process,” said Jim Manley, who served as an aide to former Senate majority leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.). “Having them on the opposite side of single-payer will be a very difficult obstacle to overcome.”
But single-payer advocates have argued for the necessity of their more radical proposal to transform the American health system, noting that the United States spends about twice as much per person as peer nations on health care despite lagging behind significantly on several key health indexes. To supporters of single-payer, the frenzy of federal lobbying against Medicare-for-all highlights the need to upend the health-care status quo.
“When the people begin organizing against private insurance, the lonely insurance executives turn to their only friends: the elected officials beholden to their cash,” said Tim Faust, an activist for single-payer health care.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2019/04/12/weve-done-lot-more-than-you-would-think-how-health-insurance-industry-is-working-pull-democrats-away-medicare-for-all/
