Dems And Repubs Create Sneaky Backdoor to Privatize Medicare

Photo source: Canva.com

Instead of looking to improve and expand Medicare as the majority in the U.S. favor, the Biden administration is using a back door created by the Trump administration to invite Wall St. to privatize it. Since this would be an unpopular move, a bureaucratic structure known as Direct Contracting Entities (DCE) has crept in behind the scenes.

In case you think the U.S. health care system already has too many middlemen raking in profits from people’s illnesses, you ain’t seen nothing yet.  

Doctors are enticed to sign up for a DCE on the promise that their revenues will go up. 

Then patients are opted into the DCE without their consent or even knowledge. They can opt out again and change doctors, but only if they know about it.

Physicians for a National Health Program has put together this explainer about the threat posed by DCEs — which already exist in 43 states, including Maine. (It’s a pdf so I can’t embed it but I’ll include a screenshot.)

Why would both Democratic and Republican administrations create a way for private investors to prey on the elderly or people with disabilities who currently receive Medicare?

Because when Wall St. says Jump, both Democrats and Republicans ask, How high? 

The big bucks that flow into campaign coffers on “both sides of the aisle” are what buys representation in this alleged democracy, while the people get fleeced with the government’s cooperation.

Source: https://doi.org/10.26099/01DV-H208

We already spend the most on health — enough and then some to fund universal health care — and rather than good health we have lousy outcomes. The fact that we alone of rich countries have no public health system is a direct result of ultra wealthy health “insurance” corporations sponsoring our government.  

Commerce and health just don’t mix.

A more in-depth discussion of DCEs is here on YouTube.

Join me in signing the PNHP petition to stop DCEs here.

International right wing death cult

There are two reasons I was relieved that Biden-Harris won the recent election. First, Black people (and Native people, and Latinx people) expressed how dangerous it felt to have the demagogue with bad hair urging violence against them by his disaffected white supremacist followers. (The fact that two architects of the carceral state and the ultra racist “war on drugs” represent relief for BIPOC is emblematic of the catastrophic racism foundational to our way of life in the USA. Not to mention the warmongering against brown people around the planet.)

The second reason I was relieved is that I am anticipating the end of headlines like this one from yesterday:

Source: Lewiston Sun Journal

At this point you may be wondering,

What do Maine’s COVID-19 transmission rates have to do with who’s in the White House?

Thinking about the campaign that just concluded, I am remembering several photographs and headlines:

Source: The Telegraph reporting on VP Pence’s rally in Hermon, Maine Oct. 19

Mills ‘disappointed’ coronavirus guidelines weren’t followed at Pence rally

Hundreds gathered in Hermon on Monday for a ‘MAGA’ rally hosted by VP Mike Pence; Gov. Mills said she was “disappointed” and “saddened” by what she saw at the rally.

AUGUSTA, Maine — Maine Gov. Janet Mills voiced her disappointment of the Vice President over the “Make America Great Again!” rally in Hermon earlier this week, where hundreds—many not wearing masks—gathered for the outdoor rally.

At the Maine CDC coronavirus briefing on Tuesday, Mills said she was “disappointed” and “saddened” by what she saw at the rally—large crowds, little to no social distancing, and scant mask-wearing among attendees.

One rally causing that much of an uptick in COVID cases three weeks later? Hard to believe.

But of course it wasn’t just one rally. Multiple rallies for GOP candidates in places other than Hermon like Bangor, Saco, Levant, etc. saw crowds gathering from around the state, unmasked, and not socially distancing. Most of the rallies were to secure that one electoral college vote from Maine’s 2nd district. They succeeded, but was the price for the people of Maine worth it?

Source: Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Research Center

Academic research has demonstrated that nations with authoritarian oligarchic governments, like the US, Russia and Brazil, have failed miserably at containing the pandemic. Meanwhile countries led by socially-minded governments like New Zealand, Australia, and China have done best.

Source: The Independent

Maine is still full of people defiantly unmasked despite the governor’s executive orders intended to keep more of us healthy and alive. I’m home in the 2nd district now that my own campaign has ended, and I don’t dare go into the local store or post office.

I’m not overly optimistic about the new regime’s ability to get a raging pandemic under control because they are deeply committed to keeping the profit motive in our failed system of health care. Only people can change that, probably by mounting a general strike until they get universal health care like Medicare for All.

In the meantime, I believe epidemiologists. I’m willing to wear a mask, cancel social events, and take extra precautions because I want to live to see my grandchildren grow and thrive. Don’t you?