You are the competition

What's so Great about Private Health Insurance in the LA Times is a must read. All of us need reminding that in 1993 :...health insurance executives had assured Congress...they would work to secure universal medical coverage and end denials of coverage to people with pre-existing conditions.

That was 1993. How'd that work out?

The reason the private insurance cabal cannot be trusted is that have proven beyond all doubt that they are not trustworthy. Not only does the "free market" system not work regarding health care - there is no health care free market system now.

This consolidation has produced functional monopolies in communities across America. The American Medical Assn. (itself no great fan of reform) found in a 2007 survey that in 76% of the country, defined as its major metropolitan statistical areas, one insurer had a share of 50% or more of the conventional insurance market. This phenomenon gives the companies enormous power to drive up premiums and maximize profits. Why do we tolerate this?

I am a cynic on this issue. I have no faith and less than no hope that Obama will affect real change in the way health care is rationed in the United States. He has fumbled this issue badly by handing it off to 635 little egos on Capitol Hill and refusing to stand firmly for any particular element. The result has left an opening for the usual clap trap about socialized medicine and granny dying because of "rationing."

(The poor are already dying because of rationing. The health insurance system is all about rationing. The natural competition to insurance companies is YOUR HEALTH. Less care for your health equals more profit for them.)

Further Obama's slothful delegation of health care reform has lead to a few "blue dogs" - who represent a tiny portion of the population and accept huge contributions from Big Insurance - being able to slow even the most obvious reform element, a public option. Which, since Big Insurance insists they provide the best health care in the world, ought not to be problem. Certainly these wizards of health care delivery can compete with a lowly government program. Fed Ex has survived socialized mail delivery for years now. Notre Dame has somehow survived the evil machinations of Indiana State.

Please note that those in congress who are holding up real reform and intend to kill it get a choice of 10 - that's right -10 health insurance plans - all on our dime. The current debate is a case study in just how comatose our democracy is. Money is power in the U.S. Not people, not votes. Money. Embedded power thwarts any movement that would limit even a tiny portion of that power.

YOUR HEALTH will remain the Big Insurance's competition after this round of "reform" ends. Your health will still be dependant on being employed and the overarching power of the insurance bureaucracy. More so, in fact. Insurance companies are busy making certain that we are mandated to buy their product. It may be illegal for you not to have their product. We are told this will be better than a public option. This, we are told, is freedom from the "tyranny" of the government.

Calling George Orwell....