Politico: The Army Built to Fight 'Medicare for All'

[JoeOtterbein]

[link:https://www.politico.com/news/agenda/2019/11/25/medicare-for-all-lobbying-072110|

The top health industry lobbies have joined forces to take down socialized medicine — or anything that looks like it. Will they succeed?

Chip Kahn took one look at the scene playing out inside the stately Hart Senate Office Building and knew he needed to do something about it.

It was mid-September 2017 and Sen. Bernie Sanders had just ascended a stage to the cheers of more than a hundred health care activists, grassroots organizers and political supporters. The packed hearing room had played host to some of the most solemn moments in Washington's modern history: the crafting of a landmark missile treaty with the Soviet Union, the investigation of the 9/11 terror attacks, the consideration of at least five Supreme Court nominees.

On this day, it had been transformed into a staging ground for the first stop in Sanders' latest political crusade. Standing in front of a bright blue HEALTHCARE IS A RIGHT banner tacked to the back wall, Sanders heralded the renewal of a "long and difficult struggle" to fulfill the liberal dream he'd pursued for decades: “Medicare for All.”

snip

more at link

Liz and Bernie terrify them.

[guillaumeb]

1. Recommended.

And we see the results of that propaganda even here, with the frequent posts warning people of the supposed immense costs associated with any single payer plan, and how the US cannot afford what is, in fact, cheaper in every other country.

[DanieRains]

2. What Could Be More Ametican Than

Making gobs of money off sick people.

Why should our fate not be decided by some corporations bottom line.....

Everyone in America loves paying twice as much for overall crappier care?

We're definitely #1 at being suckers fighting for every last crump falling from the spittles of billionaires.

[paleotn]

3. Where there's huge money to be made....

off the suffering of others, there will be fat cats willing to go to the mat to maintain the status quo. The spice must flow. If people have to die to maintain big insurance's revenue stream, so be it.

[Uncle Joe]

4. Kicked and recommended.

Thanks for the thread JoeOtterbein.

[George II]

5. No they don't.

[JoeOtterbein]

7. Half a billion bucks in 2018...

...smells like fear to this Otter!

[George II]

13. Half a billion bucks on what? No, no one is scared.

[JoeOtterbein]

14. Thanks for making it clear, cause...

...I was wondering how much of the article you read.

[George II]

22. It's not an "article", it's an opinion piece. Again, no one is scared, except....

....those who see their campaigns collapsing.

[Evolve Dammit]

6. This alone is a fight worth fighting. Number one cause of bankruptcy in U.S. and holding most

families back financially; big time. Living it for the last two decades and it gets worse. every. year. Our out-of-pocket is at least 10,000 every year. A big chunk that could be spent elsewhere, or God Forbid saved and/or invested. Liz and Bernie are right; it's rigged and the "middle class" is on life support.

[BeckyDem]

9. Thank you.+1

[myohmy2]

31. +1

...

[BeckyDem]

8. There are politicians working to defeat it.

I believe we're going to defeat them regardless.

[rocktivity]

10. Fine with me -- Look how well trying to make "Obamacare" a dirty word worked out.

rocktivity

[JoeOtterbein]

11. Great point!

[democrank]

12. Reread #6

[DCofVA]

15. It's time for the American people to fight back and...

Only support candidates who support MFA.

[PhoenixDem]

16. No one is "terrified" of them

it is just a fantasy of the few

They are both in decline and will lose the nomination

[JoeOtterbein]

17. So why spend billions to stop them?

If it is so easy?

[PhoenixDem]

18. No one is spending billions - that is also a fantasy n/t

[JoeOtterbein]

19. Now it is plain you did not read the article.

Comeee onn man!

[PhoenixDem]

21. Where is the proof that someone is spending billions?

A few million maybe.

[JoeOtterbein]

23. Read the article please! Another snip:

Even in a town with more than 20 lobbyists for every member of Congress, the corporate health care army is outsized; health care companies spent nearly $568 million on lobbying in 2018 alone, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, more than any other industry. For the past four years, its spending has topped a half-billion dollars.

[PhoenixDem]

25. Even if the number is true (which it is not)

$568 million does not equate to "billions"

Simple math

[JoeOtterbein]

33. Please re-read above.

One half billion in '18 plus one half billion, for the previous years, is one whole billion.

How much do you need before we can have Universal Healthcare?

[JoeOtterbein]

24. Actually like 70% loved the idea, until...

...billions of bucks spent.

[PhoenixDem]

26. No. They loved it until they saw the costs. n/t

[JoeOtterbein]

27. Because they knew they would lose grabbing what some call the "cost"...

...before the patient gets what some of us Dems call "Healthcare."

It's pitiful.

[ritapria]

28. Per capita Healthcare spending in Western Single Payer Countries

is 50% less than what we have in America …..In the rest of the Western World , it is political suicide to advocate privatization of healthcare ...Why do we have to settle for this shitty system ? …. All of the unnecessary deaths, all of the bankruptcies.. Why ?

[ehrnst]

32. Well, if we had started 75 years ago, we'd likely have the same thing that other countries who did

have.

To imply that those countries could have gotten where they are now with UHC, starting with what we have now, in just two years, is certainly not the argument of anyone who knows anything about health care and history.

It's a gross oversimplification, and creates false expectations.

[LanternWaste]

37. After this therefor because of this?

It's a trendy little logical fallacy. Fits on most t-shirts and almost all bumper stickers.

It's tough work maintaining logical fallacies as an argument's predicate, yet you do it so deftly and so apologetically.

[wellst0nev0ter]

34. So give up your Medicare

"They detest government control of healthcare" right? But you won't, will you?

[PatrickforO]

29. I want Medicare for All, and no matter how much money these greed-heads

pour into it, me and my family and millions of other Americans want Medicare for All. What I have now is crap and it is because of these disgusting assholes spending over half a billion flooding DC with their immoral profit-mongering. We need some real change here.

[tirebiter]

30. You got 60 senate votes?

And trump out? Those are your first hurdles. Until then make it an aspiration.

[wellst0nev0ter]

35. You think a minority veto power is sustainable?

Then support the status quo, along with the $400 insulin you like.

[tirebiter]

36. Who is supporting the status quo?

ACA has been undercut at every opportunity Trump can find. That's what led to the Democrats retaking the House. Rethink what you said, please. I contend that the only way of changing the current status quo is a sure defeat of Donald Trump and restoring ACA is an issue that took back the House for starters. Surely the truth is something we can agree on.

[wellst0nev0ter]

38. Keeping the ACA means keeping $400 insulin

That is all.