President Obama is pressing for a new deadline on the passage of the health care reform after it became clear that the Senate is not going to vote before the August recess. Glen Ford, the executive editor of the Black Agenda Report says the longer they wait to reform the health care system, the more likely it is that the public is going to turn against it. Produced by Ania Smolenskaia
BioGlen Ford is a distinguished radio-show host and commentator. In 1977, Ford co-launched, produced and hosted America’s Black Forum, the first nationally syndicated Black news interview program on commercial television. In 1987, Ford launched Rap It Up, the first nationally syndicated Hip Hop music show, broadcast on 65 radio stations. Ford co-founded the Black Agenda Report. Ford is also the author of The Big Lie: An Analysis of U.S. Media Coverage of the Grenada Invasion.
Comments from Registered Members | (Register or log in to make your comment.) | betsyw 2009-07-28
Go to http://www.guaranteedhealthcare4all.org and go to the July 30 rally in Washington DC. | haywoodwhy 2009-07-28
our needs as citizens'
If we, as citizen's and taxpayer's, are not a part of the decision making process, then we are not a part that matters! As citizen's, our needs, as an example..healthcare, need to be decided by we the people. I feel the same way about my underwear as I do my health care. I want to pick it out myself, and I want to try it out and see how it fits, and I do not want to wear the same underwear as everyone else. I am not going to pay for underwear that you force me to wear either! | haywoodwhy 2009-07-28
The Health Care Reform Debate needs to be taken to the next level to avoid the gridlock of partisan politics.We, the People, need to be included in the debate and in the vote! This legislation is way too important for the maintenance and continued existence of a free and united people, in this country, for us to let it just be decided by wealthy, and unhealthy for the citizens, interests. It is becoming very obvious that the Health Care Reform issue cannot be decided on the merits of any one bill because of the politics involved. When the political process in this country ceases to represent the citizens of this country by not listening to, and acting upon, their requests and their voices,(or by creating something which has no relevance to anything other than more wealth creation) what form of government do we have? Well, all of the politics, and the him-hawing around, are happening because those decision makers put their re-election and continued political welfare way out in front of | haywoodwhy 2009-07-27
President Obama has also been one the most powerful lobbyists against HR 676, and for the Insurance Corporations. It is very obvious that The President's, and Max Baucus', efforts have been involved mainly with Insurance reform and not Health Care Reform. They have all paid HR 676 lip service, but it is just political rhetoric! American's want Health Care Reform not Insurance Care reform...or what ever they are going to lie to us about it being. Single Payer! | haywoodwhy 2009-07-27
First we had Bank Care, labeled as banking reform, and the health of the banks was seen as super important to the economy, but the people were allowed to lose their homes and everything else! Then we had the super big corporations, to big to fail,bad for the country if they die, care. We have had foreign government, we caused their problems, care. Now it's well known that the American, working, public is being pushed to the edge of bankruptcy by, just for one thing, the high cost of health care. So, it appears that because the Banks, and Big Business, and Insurance Corporations are important to America, they get bailed out! My point is obvious. When it comes to Health care Reform for America's hard working citizen's: the answer is NO! NO hr 676, and now you know why? It's because letting the insurance companies continue to rip us off is a part of the federal governments insurance care bill! Same old politiks equals same old health care system! | dart 2009-07-27
Add in the U6 figures and US unenployment heads towards 20%.Contrast with the Great deperession when it reached 25%.Obama cannot duck responsibility because he is the frontman for the same party that created the mess-there is only the business party which owns him outright.He`s got no wiggle room .He promised to create 2-3 million jobs but out of what?Unlike the 30s there`s no manufacturing base to resort to and the govt. now committed to social support is in worse shape.So while medical bills are a major cause of bankruptcy in a nation where people are losing their homes a true health reform bill must be now before the US enters a decade of depression/stagnation. | dart 2009-07-27
I suggest american citizens go to financialsense news.com to saturday`s audio download plus website and follow their coverage.Of course there`s no reform in fact its going to cost more for less.The US public are studying this bill better than their representatives.This is a matter of priorities as FSN makes clear.1.3T for the `reform` with plenty of pork but who is saying kill the military budget and spend it on we the people?A `not business friendly` bill err. could this mean a people friendly bill!Throw out obama and get one who works for you!Good luck to Dennis` States option.There are two states (Nev.S.Dak?) without budget deficits and one with its own bank.Thats where you start healthcare reform. | betsyw 2009-07-27
A great analysis by Glenn Ford. Yes, healthcare reform appears to be dying, but we cannot allow this to set back medical care for all Americans for decades. If this bill fails, and I hope it does, the people, all of us, should demand HR676...the true single-payer, Medicare-for-all plan which will cost thousands less per family, and which can be funded with a few extra taxes (on Wall Street trades and on millionaires). Have a look at http://www.hr676.org. | LiberalChiroDoc 2009-07-27
Excellent comment on Obama not dealing with the power before trying to pass this. Dealing with that power would've been shown by going to single payer and taking the power of the for-profit private health insurance industry out of the picture. But those are the players who helped put him into the White House and so will not bite the hands that have fed him. YET ANOTHER EXAMPLE WHY WE NEED PUBLIC FINANCING OF ELECTIONS. | sshenfield 2009-07-27
I didn't understand the final remark about "being set back decades" if the public turn against reform. What does the speaker envision people turning TO? Surely all those who suffer from the present system will not become its supporters. Perhaps they will give up on politics altogether? Or with reform blocked perhaps more people will become interested in revolutionary politics? |
President Obama is pressing for a new deadline on the passage of the health-care reform, after it became clear that the Senate is not going to vote before the August recess. On Thursday, during a town hall meeting in Shaker Heights, Ohio, Obama said he is hoping to sign the bill into law by the end of this year. PRES. BARACK OBAMA: We just heard today day that while we may not be able to get the bill out of the Senate by the beginning of August, that's okay. I just want people to keep on working. I want the bill to get out of the committees, and then I want that bill to go to the floor, and then I want that bill to be reconciled between the House and the Senate, and then I want to sign a bill. And I want it done by the end of this year.The Real News spoke to Glen Ford, the executive editor of the Black Agenda Report, about the state of the health-care reform.GLEN FORD: The House is holding off on having a vote of its own because it doesn't want to be second-guessed by an even more right-wing Senate. Obama's not going to get this vote in both houses before there is a recess. He wanted that very badly, because in fact this is all about symbolism and the appearance of getting a difficult job done. It's not about reform. Reform, by definition, changes the relationships of forces, relationships of power. This does none of that. And that's at the root of Obama's failure, or this fiasco, as it is unfolding, that he set out to create some kind of grand national consensus on health care without confronting power. And when you try to make a consensus without confronting power, power always wins. He wound up privileging and empowering the most right-wing members of his own political party. So now we have a gaggle of about five Democrats from the right wing of his party, in whose hands the fate of what's still being called "health reform" rests. And they are carrying on their negotiations with Republicans and insurers, who want no meaningful reform and who in fact seem to be making progress in actually profiting from some elements of this alleged reform is, that is, having certain subsidies locked-in in return for promises to at some time in the future save the people some money by not gouging as much as they plan.In his prime-time address last week, the president has introduced a new term for the health reform. He referred to it as a "health-insurance reform."OBAMA: Even as we rescue this economy from a full-blown crisis, we must rebuild it stronger than before. And health-insurance reform is central to that effort.FORD: This is not a health-care bill; this is a health-insurance bill. And that's a very, very different thing. One is focused on getting as generalized quality care for as many people as possible in the national interest. The other is a push-and-pull between different profit-making enterprises to see how much profit can be garnered through this legislation.And though the president spoke about many agreements and compromises already made, the public option discussion was kept to bare minimum.OBAMA: Having a public plan out there that also shows that maybe if you take some of the profit motive out, maybe if you are reducing some of the administrative costs, that you can get an even better deal, that's going to incentivize the private sector to do even better.FORD: You incentivize the private insurers by presenting a product that is better than what they have. They, however, because this debate is being run by the right wing of the Democratic Party, they are constructing the product that will present as little threat as possible to the private insurers. What they are in fact concocting is an inferior and possibly multi-tiered plan, a very small one, which will be administered by private insurance and only subsidized by the federal government. It will be a product that is purposely not attractive. Incentive means real competition. Real competition means a product that is accessible to many, many millions of people and that delivers a better product than the competition, the private insurers. The whole debate here is not about making a quality product that reaches as many Americans as possible for as low a cost; the heart of the debate, all of this wrangling, is to make sure that the private insurance interests are not threatened by a public option. Therefore it's a contradiction.Obama also introduced a new idea of creating an independent commission to set Medicare payment rates. It was originally proposed by the Blue Dogs, a fiscally conservative group of Democrats, and was roughly agreed upon by Chairman Waxman of the Energy and Commerce Committee.FORD: The idea of this panel of experts sounds like a good one, but, of course, we don't know which sectors of medicine they represent. And also it's totally undemocratic. Who are these high priests, who represent some economic interests, to impose the standards for health care for the rest of us and be able to override the Congress? Clearly, the people who proposed this are afraid of the kind of public momentum that a real health-care reform movement would engender, and want to put another undemocratic obstacle in the way before it gets started. The way the debate was purposely framed by Obama and transmitted in this fashion by the corporate media was that we have Obama, he represents progress and the left, nobody to his left, and Obama having this conversation with all of these people who supposedly are to his right. So we had a right-wing conversation going on, orchestrated by President Obama. He orchestrated it by shutting single-payer advocates out of the debate.The only panel to include the single-payer alternative in the bill so far is the House Education and Labor Committee, where Representative Dennis Kucinich introduced an amendment which lets states create their own single-payer health-care systems.FORD: So the local route is the only way to go. But one has to be realistic about this. When you go from state to state, this, a mishmash of programs, you're going to have the same problem that you have regarding states' relationships with each other in terms of economic development and all kinds of economic issues. That is, those states that have their own single-payer plan, which will have to be paid for, will then be labeled as being not business-friendly, that is, that they would be working at a disadvantage in the marketplace, in the same way that more progressive states that have higher levels of benefits and have always been described as not good places to do business. I think that reform is in fact dead, that every further step they make in terms of deforming this travesty that they call health-reform further discredits the idea itself in the minds of people. And the more contradictions they build, the more negative the public reaction will be to the whole experience of trying to construct edifices of reform. So this can be worse than nothing. And the longer they are allowed to play games with this, games against the interest of reform, the more likely it is that the public's going to turn against the whole process. And that will set us back possibly decades. |
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