Is Wall St. Making Life or Death Decisions for You?

[LongTomH]

Dr.Dora Calott Wong makes a good argument that they are:

t's hard to recall that for-profit corporations were once kept out of health care -- in fact, for most of the 20th century. During this time, the nation's medical system was built largely by non-profit and charitable organizations, which is why so many hospitals are named for saints. Courts across the country ruled that for corporations to profit from medical care was simply "against sound public policy." In the early 1980's, however, when the financial and airline industries were deregulated, a similar process occurred for American medicine. For-profit corporations became newly encouraged to take leadership of health care. Deregulating health care into the free market was intended to drive down costs and to improve care. After all, medical care in 1980 consumed a whopping 9.1

Never mind that after 30 years in the free market, health care costs have doubled to consume 18 percent of the GDP (with a third of these precious dollars wasted on bureaucracy). Never mind that health care has gotten increasingly inaccessible to the uninsured and even the insured, or that American health care has become an international poster child for reform.

Dr.Wong states that modern, scientific medical care has made it possible to treat the diseases that were the great killers of the past; today, even cancer and AIDS may not be death sentences. She makes the case that medical care should be regarded as essential, not an ordinary product, like shoes or flat-screen TV's. She gives Obama credit for the HCR act, but:

believe that health care reform will be our entire future.

In the meantime, for now, how is modern medical care, a new Prometheus' fire, being distributed and decided in the United States?

Physicians and patients sit face to face and discuss medical decisions -- about whether a life-sustaining cardiac bypass surgery is warranted, or whether a new liver should be gotten. But ultimately, the purse strings on medical care are held by health insurance companies.

More here: http://www.alternet.org/economy/147646/is_wall_street_making_life_or_death_decisions_on_your_behalf?page=1

[tom_paine]

1. Of course they are, just as it has been for almost all of human history

Discomfort, suffering and death after a lifetime of being pushed around like chess pieces for the Plebes.

Living like Gods and long life for the 0.01% Aristocracy off of the labor and effort of the Plebes.

Not to worry, Plebes. Invisible Sky Being says just eat shit all your lives meekly and in obedience to your bettors and a paradise of total justice awaits...after you're dead, of course.

:rofl:

Nothing has changed and nothing apprently ever will, even if the occasional brief mild exceptions (like America 1945-1980, now long dead) are created. The Aristocracy won't tolerate it for long, and it never lasts long.