The big question
is, "Who won?" The clear answer is: The health insurance companies and
the health fascists. The health insurance companies get tens of
millions of involuntary new "customers," and the health fascists get to
jam their cult ideology down everyone's throats, enforced by fines in
both cases.
According to the Congressional Budget Office, private insurance
companies would get $605 billion over ten years in exchange subsidies
for 36 million people under the House bill (October 29, 2009 CBO report
on House bill, page 17), and $436 billion over ten years for 31 million
people under the Senate bill (December 19 CBO report on Senate bill,
page 23).
The Senate bill was reportedly written by Elizabeth Fowler. (Health
Insurance Monopolies Are Illegal. By Jerry Policoff. Dec. 28, 2009.)
"Senator Max Baucus’s chief health adviser, Elizabeth Fowler, has
been called the “chief operating officer” of the healthcare reform
process by Politico — the staffer who sets legislative deadlines,
coordinates with the White House on policy, and is understood to speak
for Baucus on health policy issues. Washington Post blogger Ezra Klein
has called her the most influential health staffer in the Senate.
Fowler, as it turns out, is also fresh off a lucrative stint working
for the insurance industry: from 2006 to 2008, she was VP of public
policy for Wellpoint, the insurance giant.... Baucus’s chief health
advisor prior to Fowler, Michelle Easton, currently lobbies for
Wellpoint as a principal at Tarplin, Downs, & Young. (Chief health
aide to Baucus is former Wellpoint executive. By Kevin Connor. Eyes on
the Ties Blog, Sep. 1, 2009.)
Before she was at WellPoint, Fowler "served as the Chief Health and
Entitlements Counsel for the U.S. Senate Committee on Finance. In this
capacity, she was responsible for overseeing health policy issues
within the Committee's jurisdiction, including Medicare, Medicaid,
SCHIP, health tax issues and initiatives to provide health coverage for
the uninsured. She played a key role in the 2003 Medicare Prescription
Drug, Improvement and Modernization Act (MMA). Liz was an attorney with
the Washington law firm Hogan & Hartson, and she spent nearly five
years as a health services researcher with HealthSystem Minnesota. Liz
received a B.A. from the University of Pennsylvania, a Ph.D. from the
Johns Hopkins School of Public Health, where her research focused on
risk adjustment, and a law degree (J.D.) from the University of
Minnesota. She is admitted to the bars of the District of Columbia and
Maryland." (Elizabeth J. Fowler, PHD, JD. Healthcare Roundtable.) Hogan
& Hartson is the law firm of former Rep. Paul
G. Rogers, who was Chairman of the House Subcommittee on Health and
the Environment from 1971-1978.
One of her early papers included this: Are health risks related to
medical care charges in the short-term? Challenging traditional
assumptions. PE Terry, EJ Fowler, JB Fowles. Am J Health Promot 1998
May-Jun;12(5):340-347. Among 3825 adults 18-64, and 1955 over 65 years
old in a Minneapolis HMO, "traditional risk factors are weak and
inconsistent predictors of short-term medical charges. Charging smokers
and other high risk individuals a higher annual insurance premium than
is offered for those at low risk raises questions about fairness when
such risk factors are not necessarily good predictors of short-term
resource use."
Wellpoint (formerly WellPoint Health Networks Inc.) is the largest United States health insurer, and the company that operates Blue Cross and Blue Shield plans. It is based in Indianapolis. William H.T. "Bucky" Bush, Wolf's Head 1960, brother of former President George H.W. Bush, has been a director since 2004, and of its predecessor companies since 1989. Other directors include Sheila P. Burke, who was chief of staff to former Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole from 1986 to 1996, who joined the board in 1997. She is on the board of trustees of the University of San Francisco and the American Board of Internal Medicine Foundation and serves as a member of the board of the Kaiser Family Foundation, and a member of the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC); the Kaiser Commission on the Future of Medicaid and Uninsured; the National Advisory Council at the Center for State Health Policy; and the Institute of Medicine. Lenox D. Baker Jr., M.D., director since 2002, is a trustee of Johns Hopkins University and a member of the board of trustees of Johns Hopkins Medicine. Susan B. Bayh, director since 2001, is the wife of Sen. Evan Bayh, D-IN. Donald W. Riegle Jr., director since 2001, was a U.S. Representative from 1967-75 and Senator from 1976-94. The company has about $16 billion in revenue. Its profits rose 7% in the last quarter of 2006, while the benefit expense — or medical loss — ratio rose to 82.9 percent, from 81 percent a year before. (Earnings Rise 7% at Health Insurer. AP. Jan. 24, 2008.) WellPoint created the Missouri Foundation for Health in January 2000 to receive assets accumulated by Blue Cross Blue Shield of Missouri (BCBSMo) prior to its conversion from nonprofit to for-profit status. Today, MFH is the largest health care foundation in the state and is among the largest of its kind in the country. In 2004, MFH launched a $40 million, nine-year Tobacco Prevention & Cessation Initiative.
WellPoint 2006 DEF 14A / Securities and Exchange CommissionDr. Lenox D. Baker [Sr.] was an orthopedic surgeon at Duke
University since 1937. In 1971, he was appointed to the North Carolina
Human Resources Department, which combined Social Services, Mental
Health, and the State Board of Health. He was originally from Texas.
(New Human Relations Dept. Chief Trades His Security For Risks.
Lumberton Robesonian, Nov. 1, 1971.) In 1941, he was a pallbearer at
the funeral of William W.
Flowers, chairman of Liggett & Myers
Tobacco Company. (Wm.
Flowers Dies; Tobacco Executive. New York Times, May 2, 1941.) Mrs.
Baker was Virginia Flowers, daughter of Robert Lee Flowers, the former
president of Duke [brother of William W. Flowers]. (Mrs. Baker Is Dead
In Durham. Burlington Daily Times-News, Apr. 15, 1966.) He died in
1995. (Lenox Baker Hailed As Pioneer, Friend to Duke. Dialogue, Jun.
16, 1995.)
Director Robert J. Darretta was Chief Financial Officer and member
of the Executive Committee of Johnson & Johnson from 1997 to 2007.
He joined J&J in 1968. Kenneth I. Shine, M.D,
was Dean and Provost of Medical Sciences at the University of
California from 1971 to 1992; president of the American Heart
Association 1985-1986; President of the Institute of Medicine at the
National Academy of Sciences from 1992 to 2002; and has been executive
vice chancellor for health affairs of the University of Texas System
since 2003. Gail R. Wilensky, PhD, an economist, was the Administrator
of the Health Care Financing Administration (Medicare and Medicaid)
from 1990-1992, Deputy Assistant to President George H. W. Bush for policy
development 1992-1993, and a senior fellow at Project HOPE since 1993.
She was also a commissioner on the World Health Organization's
Commission on the Social Determinants of Health. She graduated from the
University of Michigan in 1964. (Ford School and Department of
Economics receive joint professorship in Applied Economics and Public
Policy. Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy, Jul. 1, 2008.)
Aetna Life Insurance Company funded the "Feeling Good" health
propaganda program of the Children's
Television Workshop circa 1973. The company supports health fascist
lobbyists such as the Partnership for Prevention.
Aetna was a major source of funds for Kohlberg, Kravis Roberts (KKR) in the 1980s. Aetna Life & Casualty
was a top institutional stockholder of Philip
Morris in 1989-90, and former Aetna
director William H. Donaldson
was also a director of Philip Morris. Aetna director Earl G. Graves has been a
director of Liggett
& Myers Tobacco Company since 1971. He was a hireling of the
Ford Foundation. Aetna's former chairman and CEO, John W. Rowe, is a trustee of the
Rockefeller Foundation. Director Jeffrey E.
Garten was Managing Director of Shearson Lehman Brothers 1984-87, and
Managing Director of The Blackstone Group 1990-1992.
Molly Joel Coye was a Medical Investigative Officer at the National
Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, 1980-85; Special Advisor
for Health and the Environment, State of New Jersey Office of the
Governor from 1985 to 1986; Commissioner of Health of New Jersey,
1986-89; Head of the Division of Public Health, Department of Health
Policy and Management, Johns Hopkins School of Hygiene and Public
Health from 1990 to 1991; Director of the California Department of
Health Services from 1991 to 1993; Senior Vice President, Clinical
Operations, Good Samaritan Health Hospital from 1993 to 1996; Executive
Vice President of HealthDesk Corp. 1996-97; Senior Vice President of
the West Coast Office of The Lewin Group (consulting) from 1997 to
December 2000; and CEO of the Health Technology Center since 2000.
Coye received a BS in BS Political Science at the University of
California at Berkeley in 1968. She got an MD and an MPH at Johns
Hopkins University in 1977. (Molly J. Coye. NNDB, accessed 1-3-10.)
"In 1986, New Jersey's then Commissioner of Health, Richard
Goldstein, established the Commission on Smoking or Health to serve as
an advisory board to the State Department of Health on matters
concerning tobacco use and control." The Governor's wife, Mrs. Thomas H. Kean, was honorary chairman. Molly J.
Coye was the leading leading instigator of this. New Jersey GASP Inc.
bought two full-page ads in the journal. (NJ State Commission on
Smoking or Health. By Lee B. Reichman. NJ Med 1988 Feb;85(2):75-178;
pages 149-155.) Coye demanded more anti-smoking laws by claiming that
secondhand smoke can increase the risks of cancer, cardiovascular and
lung disease. (Tougher laws sought to limit indoor smokers. Asbury Park
Press, Nov. 29, 1988.) This more than four years before the corrupt
so-called EPA report on ETS was released.
In 1989, Coye was chairman of the Executive Board of the American
Journal of Public Health, to serve until 1991. (Table of Contents. AJPH
1989 Sep;79(90:1203.)
Coye applauded the State of California's Nazi-like campaign of lies
and defamations against smokers, funded by afflicting smokers with
ourageous taxes under Proposition 99, and boasted that "California's
comprehensive and aggressive fight against tobacco use has captured the
attention of people all over the world. California is the leader in the
fight against tobacco use." (California Department of Health Services
Releases New Print Advertisement for Historic Tobacco Education
Campaign. Business Wire, Jul. 30, 1991.) As Director of the California
Department of Health Services, she initiated the state's fraudulent
imitation of the corrupt US EPA report.
Coye was quoted as babbling that 'Today the tobacco industry money
is more deadly than a contaminated syringe with the HIV virus in it.
More deadly than a mosquito carrying malaria. (KABC-TV Eyewitness News,
Los Angeles, Feb. 4, 1993.) In 1991, she got into a funding squabble
with her equally vile and despicable fellow anti-smokers, who wanted
more money for their camapign of defamations, and they commenced a
campaign of smears against her which continued for at least the next
five years. (Former state health spokeswoman denies tobacco fund
misconduct. Sacramento Bee, Dec 25 1996.)
Since that time, Coye has not played a public role in the
anti-smoking movement, but presumably holds the same opinions.
Barbara Hackman Franklin is from Lancaster, Penn., and graduated
from Pennsylvania State University and the Harvard Graduate School of
Business Administration. She left her position as an assistant vice
president of the First National City Bank of New York to take a post as
White House staff assistant for executive manpower, under anti-smoker Frederic V. Malek. Her task was to recruit women
for government positions. (Nixon aide to recruit women. Long Beach
Press-Telegram, Apr. 28, 1971.) She held that position until 1973. She
was an original Commissioner and Vice Chair of the U.S. Consumer
Product Safety Commission from 1973 to 1979, Senior Fellow of The
Wharton School of Business from 1979 to 1988, President and CEO of her
management consulting firm, Franklin Associates, 1984-92; U.S.
Secretary of Commerce 1992-1993. She is now President and CEO of
Barbara Franklin Enterprises, private investment and management
consulting firm, a director of The Dow Chemical Company, and a director
or trustee of three funds in the American Funds family of mutual funds
and a director of J.P. Morgan Value Opportunities Fund. The American
Public Health Association, Sen. Frank Moss, and the District of
Columbia Lung Association petitioned the Consumer Products Safety
Commission to regulate cigarettes in 1974. (APHA et al. vs CPSC, Civil
Action No. 74-1222, Aug. 1974.) Merrell Dow Pharmaceutical, which
marketed Nicorette gum in the U.S., is a subsidiary of Dow.
Joseph P. Newhouse spent the first twenty years of his career at the
RAND Corporation, where he designed and
directed the the RAND Health
Insurance Experiment, which received $82 million from the U.S.
Department of Health and Human Services. He has been principal
investigator on several other government and private grants and
contracts of over $1 million. In 1988 he went to Harvard, where he is a
member of the faculties of the John F. Kennedy School of Government,
the Harvard Medical School, the Harvard School
of Public Health, and
the Faculty of Arts and Sciences. He was a member of the National
Advisory Committee of The Robert Wood Johnson Investigator Awards in
Health Policy Research (selection committee), 1993-1995. (Joseph P.
Newhouse CV. Kennedy School of Governement, Harvard University.) He has
been a director of Aetna since 2001.
Newhouse was a member of the Advisory Board of the Institute for the
Study of Smoking Behavior at Harvard University, 1984-1990. Other
members of the Advisory Board included Joseph A. Califano, Beatrix A.
Hamburg, Newton N. Minow, former Surgeon
General Julius B. Richmond,
and former NCI director/AHF Trustee Arthur Upton.
The Institute Staff
included Thomas C. Schelling, the Director; and John Mercer Pinney (Skull
& Bones 1965), Nancy
A. Rigotti, and Michael A. Stoto. The Research Advisory Committee
included David M. Burns, Ellen
R. Gritz, Jeffrey E. Harris, Michael
Pertschuk, and Kenneth Warner. Burns was a member of the Science
Advisory Board of the EPA ETS report, and also testified against the
tobacco industry in the US Department of Justice lawsuit.
He was one of the authors of the RAND Corporation study, The taxes
of sin. Do smokers and drinkers pay their way? JAMA 1989 Mar
17;261(11):1604-1609. This study was evidently intended as a backup
plan to shore up the anti-smokers' claim that smoking is an economic
burden to society, in case the OTA's flagrant disregard of nonsmokers'
old age costs was too publicly criticized. (Thanks to their media
accomplices, it has not been.) It introduced the subterfuge of
"discounting" nonsmokers' old age costs in order to minimize them.
Before the results were fudged by discounting, the study found that
smoking created net savings of 91 cents per pack. This was inflated to
a net external "cost" of 26 cents per pack after discounting
nonsmokers' costs.
In his latest despicable fraud, Newhouse et al. merely assess
smokers with an arbitrary fine of between $100,000 and $200,000 for
each year of life lost (as determined by deliberately using defective
studies to falsely blame smoking for diseases that are really caused by
infection), and pretending that this is how much smoking costs society.
Bottom line: the phony "health benefits ($65 billion through 2025 in
1999 dollars) from increased longevity" are entirely fictitious, as
fraudulent as Bernie Madoff's "investment profits," and will NEVER be
reflected in any savings to Medicaid. (The economic impacts of the
tobacco settlement. DM Cutler,
J Gruber, RS Hartman, MB Landrum, JP
Newhouse, MB Rosenthal. J Policy Anal Manage 2002 Winter;21(1):1-19.) Gruber, his crony from the Harvard
Department of Economics, testified at the Senate Healthcare hearings on
June 11, 2009.
Joseph Paul Newhouse married Margaret Louise Locke, daughter of
Francis P. Locke of Riverside, Cal. Her brother, Walter Locke, and
Frank Sloan of Cambridge [Harvard] were among the ushers. He was to be
employed by the RAND Corp. in Santa Monica, Cal. (Married. Waterloo
Daily Courier, Jun. 23, 1968.) His father-in-law, Francis Philbrick
Locke, Harvard 1933, "spent more than 30 years as a volunteer for
Harvard, working to recruit high school students." He began his career
as a journalist [sic] for the Miami Daily News in 1933, was at
newspapers in St. Louis and Dayton, Ohio, and retired after ten years
as an editorial page writer at The Press-Enterprise in 1972. (Phil
Locke, Harvard Recruiter, Dies at 88. Riverside Press-Enterprise, Aug.
11, 2000.) Francis P. Locke's employer was James M. Cox, of Cox
Newspapers. (Journey through my years. By James Middleton Cox. 2004,
page 392.) The president of Cox Newspapers was Daniel J. Mahoney Sr.,
husband of Lasker Lobbyist Florence Mahoney.
Frank A. Sloan, Professor of
Health Policy at Duke University, a former crony of Newhouse at the
RAND Corporation, received his Ph.D. in Economics at Harvard in 1969.
He is the author of a book which makes fraudulent claims about smoking
costs, founded on the same specious pretenses as Newhouse's paper.
Humana's name was formerly Extendicare, no relation to the present
company of this name. Its board of directors included David A. Jones,
Chairman and CEO; Wendell Cherry, President; J. David Grissom,
Executive Vice President of Operations; Michael E. Gellert, General
Partner of Burnham & Co., New York; William T. Young, Chairman of
Royal Crown Cola Company; and four other Kentucky businessmen. (Display
Ad. The Baytown Sun, Feb. 4, 1972.)
David A. Jones is the father of the current chairman, David A. Jones
Jr. Jones Sr. was also a director of Royal Crown Cola, and a member of
Young's management group, Peachtree Holding Corporation, which held 18%
of it. (Posner Bids For Royal Crown. By Leslie Wayne. New York Times,
Jan. 17, 1984.) Jones and Michael E. Gellert were directors until April
26, 2005. David A. Jones Jr. geaduated from Yale 1980, and Yale Law
School in 1988. (NNDB.)
W. Ann Reynolds, Ph.D., a director since 1991, was President of the
University of Alabama at Birmingham from 1997 to 2002. She also was the
Chancellor of the City University of New York from 1990 to 1997,
Chancellor of the California State University system from 1982 to 1990,
clinical professor of obstetrics and gynecology at the UCLA School of
Medicine. She is also a director of Abbott Laboratories. (Humana 2009
director bio.) She was Chairman of the Committee on Nutrition of the
Mother and Preschool Child, a unit of the National Research Council's
Food and Nutrition Board, which blamed smoking for perinatal illnesses
that are actually caused by chorioamnionitis.
(Panel Recommends Diets for Pregnant Women Tailored to Cultural
Practices. Press Release, National Research Council, Nov. 3, 1982.) She
was a trustee of the International Life Sciences Institute between 1989
and 1993. (Minutes, Joint Meeting of the ILSI & ILSI - Nutrition
Foundation Board of Members, 1989-1991.)
Jane E. Henney worked at the National Cancer Institute from 1976 to
1985, as deputy director for five years. "Dr. Henney (pronounced
HAY-nee) is the candidate favored by Senator Edward M. Kennedy, the
Massachusetts Democrat who for more than two decades has taken a keen
interest in F.D.A. operations.... Aides to Senator Kennedy said he had
strongly recommended Dr. Henney for the F.D.A. job, having been
impressed with her work at the food and drug agency and at the cancer
institute. In addition, they noted, she is married to a former Kennedy
aide, Dr. Robert Graham, who is now executive vice president of the
American Academy of Family Physicians." (President Tentatively Settles
On a Choice to Head F.D.A. By Robert Pear. New York Times, May 19,
1998.) She was vice president of health services at the University of
New Mexico 1994-1998, FDA Commissioner 1998-2001, Association of
Academic Health Centers Senior Scholar 2001-03, and is currently senior
vice president and provost at the University of Cincinnati Medical
Center. She got her MD at Indiana University at Bloomington. (NNDB,
accessed 1/17/10.) She has been a director of CIGNA since 1995, when
former US Health and Human Services Secretary Louis W. Sullivan was
also a director.
Henney accompanied Assistant Secretary for Health Edward N. Brandt
at the hearings of the Subcommittee on Health and the Environment House
of the Energy and Commerce Committee on the Comprehensive Smoking
Prevention Education Act (H.B. 1824), on Mar. 9, 1983. Rep. Henry
Waxman asked her, "Isn't the relationship between smoking and lung
cancer irrefutable?" Henney replied that "The data with regard to lung
cancer is a convergence of many studies of an epidemiological nature
which are scientifically sound [sic] and support the fact that lung
cancer is causally related to cigarette smoking." (pages 30-35.) Now she should be asked whether it is
"scientifically sound" to ignore more than 50 studies which indicate
that human papillomaviruses are involved in around a quarter of
non-small cell lung
cancers!
In 1984, she claimed that reducing fats, eliminating smoking and
adding more fiber to the typical American diet could cut cancer deaths
by a quarter. She claimed that colon cancer could be prevented by a
change to fiber-rich foods, and breast cancer would be reduced by "by
some 30 percent." (By AP. Cancer Expert Warns Against Fats, Smoking.
Marysville Journal, Sep. 28, 1984.) "Breast cancer and colon cancer:
The major message here is that we could affect the incidence of both
these diseases by something that we control: what we eat. Strong
epidemiological evidence and a growing amount of laboratory research
evidence indicate that a low-fat, high-fiber diet can be effective in
decreasing the incidence of these tumors," she claimed. "[T]he experts
- the National Academy of Sciences, the National Cancer Institute, the
American Cancer Society - based on the remarkable convergence of
scientific evidence, have already made similar recommendations:
decrease the fat and increase the fiber content of our diet." (Women's
Health: Cancer. Introductory Remarks. By Jane E. Henney, MD. Public
Health Rep 1987 Jul;102(4 Suppl):91-92.) Here are the results of the
government's $625 million randomized controlled dietary modification
trial, the Women's
Health Initiative, involving 165,000 women, which show no effects
on cancer or heart disease
after more than eight years.
An aide to Sen. Don Nickles (R-OK) said that "in conversations with
the [FDA] nominee herself, she indicated her support for the FDA
tobacco regulations." (A GOP Leader in Senate Blocks Nominee for FDA.
By John Schwartz. Washington Post, Oct. 9, 1998.) Before 1994, she
spent two years as deputy commissioner under David A. Kessler, the
advocate of FDA regulation. (Senate Floor: FDA Director, Census Head
and Judges Confirmed as Year Ends. By Richard Sammons. CQ, Oct. 22,
1998.) The FDA got $34 million in fiscal year 1998 to begin compliance
checks of retail outlets. "By FY 2000, the Agency plans to contract
with or have an enforcement presence in all 50 states and most
territories," and launched a propaganda campaign. She wanted a $34
million increase in the budget. (Jane E. Henney, M.D. Commissioner Food
and Drug Administration. Testimony Before U.S. Senate Committee on
Appropriations Subcommittee on Agriculture, Rural Development, and
Related Agencies, Apr. 27, 1999, pages 24-26.)
Her husband, Robert Graham M.D., has been Professor of Family
Medicine at the University of Cincinnati School of Medicine since 2005.
He was Administrator of the Health Resources and Services
Administration (HRSA, 1981-1985), during which time he held the rank of
Rear Admiral in the Commissioned Corps of the U.S. Public Health
Service and served as an Assistant Surgeon General. He also served in
senior positions at the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality
2001-2004, the Health Resources Administration (1976-1979), and the
Health Services and Mental Health Administration (1970-1973). From
1979-1980, he served as a Professional Staff Member of the U.S. Senate
Sub-committee on Health. He was Executive Vice President/CEO of the
American Academy of Family Physicians 1985-2000, the head of the AAFP
Foundation 1988-1997, and the Administrative Officer of the Society of
Teachers of Family Medicine 1973-1975. He graduated from the University
of Kansas School of Medicine in 1970. (Robert Graham, MD. The Robert
Graham Center.)
Anti-smoking demagogue Alan Blum, the founder of DOC (Doctors Ought
to Care), was a member of the AAFP, which had a budget of $20 million
circa 1992. "AAFP made headlines during a recent annual meeting because
of an acrimonious debate among its members over the organization's
divestiture of holdings in tobacco firms' parent companies, and over
its acceptance of a grant from Fleischmann's (margarine) to be used to
run public service ads on cholesterol. AAFP also launched a major
smoking cessation program through its members earlier this year." (The
Anti-Smoking Movement. By H.E. Osmon. Aug. 6, 1992, p. 45.)
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce mindlessly rubberstamped the
Partnership for Prevention's manifesto, "Healthy Workforce 2010 and
Beyond." Its lie that "a significant percentage of deaths in the United
States are associated primarily with modifiable, lifestyle-related
behaviors" is founded on the deliberate
scientific fraud
of using lifestyle questionnaire studies that ignore the role of
infection, as well as other important material evidence, in order to
falsely blame smoking and lifestyle, and promote a political agenda of
tyrannizing over peoples' lives. Randel Johnson, Vice President for
Labor, Immigration, and Employee Benefits of the Chamber of Commerce,
which endorsed this trash, was one of the participants in the Senate
hearings of Jun. 11, 2009.
The Chamber's supposed objections to the Senate healthcare bill are
nothing but nitpicking around the edges. (U.S. Chamber Denounces
Passage of Irresponsible Health Care Bill. Press Release, Dec. 24,
2009.)
Jonathan Gruber was one of the creators of the Massachusetts
healthcare plan, and in particular, its individual mandate to force
people to have
insurance who don't want it. The alternative State
Senate plan didn't include this mandate. (New Senate Bill Would Cover
Half of State Insured. By Scott Helman and Scott S. Greenberger. Boston
Globe, Feb. 28, 2006.) The little clique who drafted the plan also
included Charlie Baker, CEO of Harvard Pilgrim Health Care; Baker's top
deputy, Bruce Bullen, who once ran the state's Medicaid operations; and
Bob Pozen, formerly Gov. Mitt Romney's top economic adviser. They were
headed by Secretary of Health and Human Services Ron Preston. (Mission
Impossible. By Steve Bailey. Boston Globe, Jan. 23, 2004.) Then, Gruber
went on to advise the California plan. (Calif.'s Healthcare Plan Looks
Familiar. By Jeffrey Krasner. Boston Globe, Jan. 11, 2007.) He has been
on the Board of the Commonwealth Health Insurance Connector Authority
since 2006.
Gruber graduated from MIT, and got his PhD in economics
from Harvard in 1992. He was a professor of economics at MIT
until 1997, when he left to become Deputy Assistant Secretary for
Economic Policy at the U.S. Treasury Department for a year. He has been
Professor of Economics at MIT ever since. His main activities at the
Treasury Department were health care policy, tobacco regulation, and
environmental regulation. He hyped the proposed resolution as good for
the stock market, and "worked with an inter-agency task force on
legislation to comprehensively regulate youth smoking in the United
States," namely the McCain bill (which failed to pass). His scheme was
to fine the tobacco companies $3000 per youth if smoking rates fail to
decline sufficiently. He has written numerous papers on the economics
of smoking and health. (United States Written Direct Examination of
Jonathan Gruber, Ph.D. United States of
American v. Philip Morris USA Inc., et al. Civil No. 99-CV-02496
(GK) [Accepted May 10, 2005].)
"For years, economists would have said that actions speak louder
than words. Whatever smokers say about quitting, they are rationally
deciding that the pleasure they derive from cigarettes exceeds their
cost. Jonathan Gruber was one of these economists when he worked in the
Treasury Department in the Clinton administration. Mr. Gruber, a
professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, remembers
telling other policy makers that economic theory says they should not
increase cigarette taxes. People should be allowed to decide for
themselves whether they want to smoke, he told his colleagues. Those
who smoke may hurt themselves, but they will not drain the country's
resources because so many of them will die before running up large
Medicare bills. Mr. Gruber called it his most embarrassing moment in
government, and his discomfort with his own argument caused him to
begin researching the issue when he returned to academia. The central
question is whether smokers really do rationally weigh the pluses and
minuses of smoking, as traditional economics would suggest." And the
piece of filth who thus editorialized cited the CDC's flagrantly
fraudulent SAMMEC as a proof that
smokers are an economic burden. (How a Tax On Cigarettes Can Help The
Taxed. By David Leonhardt. New York Times, Apr. 14, 2002.) The more
realistic story is that Gruber was
made to understand that he would not be permitted to have a career if
he persisted in making Politically Incorrect statements, and that he
would have to make amends by concocting dishonest abominations against
the very concept of while rational choice.
Gruber is a co-author of this paper: The economic impacts of the
tobacco settlement. DM Cutler,
J Gruber, RS Hartman, MB Landrum, JP
Newhouse, MB Rosenthal. J Policy Anal Manage 2002
Winter;21(1):1-19. These frauds pretend that "the value of health
benefits ($65 billion through 2025 in 1999 dollars) from increased
longevity is an order of magnitude greater than any other impacts or
payments." This phony "value" was pulled out of thin air by arbitrarily
pretending that it "costs" between $100,000 and $200,000 for each year
of life lost (as determined by deliberately using defective studies to
falsely blame smoking for diseases that are really caused by
infection), and pretending that this is how much smoking costs society.
If this was real money, people could simply pull it out of thin air
just like the Harvard economists do, and use it to pay their medical
bills! And, his co-author Newhouse, a crony from the Harvard Department
of economics, is a director of heath insurer Aetna Inc.
After Gruber stepped out of line again by editorializing in favor of
eliminating the gigantic federal tax subsidy for employer-paid health
insurance, he was attacked in a PC smear campaign accusing him of
wrongdoing by being a paid consultant to the Department of Health and
Human Services at the time. (A Loophole Worth Closing. By Jonathan
Gruber. New York Times, Jul. 12, 2009; and: Editors' Note: Jan. 9,
2010.) This proposal wasn't even proposed in any of the major plans!
Baicker was appointed to President George W. Bush's Council
of Economic Advisors in 2005. "She was an architect of President Bush's
plan, announced in his 2007 State of the Union Address, to broaden
health insurance coverage and reduce health care costs in the country."
The Bush plan included the same major elements as the Obama plan,
including promotion of private health insurance and faith in
charlatanism. The Obama plan is even worse, due to its individual
mandate, and its requirement for health fascism for insurance plans to
be "qualified." (Promoting Prevention, Wellness, and Fitness. In:
Reforming Health Care for the 21st Century. President George W. Bush,
Feb. 15, 2006.)
At the Milken Institute (which is headed by junk bond king Michael
Milken, the chief benefactor of KKR, and his
brother, Lowell Milken): "Preventative medicine, said Baicker,
generally pays for itself in the long run. But without proper
transparency for costs, patients again may not be making the
best-informed choices. If the cost of preventative medicine is
negative, she even went on to say, health-insurance companies could do
better paying for preventative health care." (Global Conference 2007,
Milken Institute, Apr. 23, 2007.) She was an an associate professor in
the Department of Public Policy at the School of Public Affairs at the
University of California, Los Angeles. Later that year, she was
appointed professor of health economics in the HSPH Department of
Health Policy and Management. (Former White House Economist Named to
Faculty. Press Release, Harvard Public Health NOW, Aug. 31, 2007.)
Baicker is a member of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation's
"Commission to Build a Healthier America," which it formally launched
on Feb. 28, 2008. The Commission includes other public and
behind-the-scenes activists, including Sheila
P. Burke, Sen. Bill Frist,
Dennis Rivera of SEIU, and others representing the
Brookings Institution, the Rockefeller Foundation, Wal-Mart Stores,
Inc., the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, ABC News and National
Public Radio, and the U Mich-Henry Ford-RAND axis. The Commission
released a report in April 2009, amidst fear-mongering about "a
generation of children who may live sicker, shorter lives than their
parents." They want to turn the country into a totalitarian
dictatorship over peoples' lives, founded on deliberate fraud and
charlatanism, designed to blame the victims (as exemplified by their
misuse of the terms "personal responsibility" to mean obedience to
impudent liars), and wage a war of cultural genocide on behalf of the
wealthy and privileged (epitomized by their slogan, "We need to
cultivate a national culture infused with health and wellness").
(Beyond Health Care: New Directions to a Healthier America. Commission
to Build a Healthier America, Apr. 2009.)
Baicker is one of three project directors of a $2,498,915 grant from
the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation to the State of Oregon, "to study
the causal impact of health insurance coverage on the physical and
mental health of low-income adults" enrolled in the lottery for its
Medicaid program, the Oregon Health Plan. The grant is to run from Nov
15, 2008 to Nov 14, 2011. (How does health insurance affect health care
use and health outcomes for low-income adults? Evidence from Oregon's
health insurance lottery. RWJF Grant number: 64964.)
She is also one of two project directors of a $100,963 grant from
the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation to Harvard University, "to develop
evidence of the extent to which behavioral factors influence enrollment
in health insurance and to
identify new levers to increase use of health insurance products."
The grant runs from May 1, 2009 to Apr 30, 2010. (Using behavioral
economics to explain health insurance enrollment patterns. RWJF Grant
number: 66014.)
Baicker is co-author of a fraudulent "workplace wellness" study:
Workplace Wellness Programs Can Generate Savings. Katherine Baicker, David Cutler and Zirui Song.
Health Aff (Millwood). 2010 Jan 14. [Epub ahead of print]. They claim
that "medical costs fall by about $3.27 for every dollar spent on
wellness programs and that absenteeism costs fall by about $2.73 for
every dollar spent." It's methodological rubbish because it
indiscriminately lumps together all types of interventions, from
self-help educational materials (81%, the highest proportion) to
incentives (31%, the lowest proportion): "Seventy-five percent of
programs focused on more than one risk factor, including stress
management, back care, nutrition, alcohol consumption, blood pressure,
and preventive care, in addition to smoking and obesity." Preventive
care might include genuine prevention, such as flu shots, for which the
nonsense shares credit. There is no evaluation of any actual medical
outcomes, nor of how the supposed "savings" were measured, or possibly,
calculated on the basis of charlatan hype. Savings were claimed for
reduced absenteeism, an effect which can be achieved merely by letting
it be known that the bosses disapprove of taking a day off. And
"savings" would be entirely fictitious in companies that don't pay for
sick days in the first place. Also in the real world, employees use
their sick days for vacation time, so these frequently don't even
reflect actual illness. But the authors merely state that they "monetized absentee
days using the average hourly wage rate in 2009 of $20.49" to
arrive at their claim of $2.73 return on the dollar.
According to the Congressional Budget Office, a Public Health
Investment Fund and a Prevention and Wellness Trust would be funded
through future appropriations of about $34 billion over ten years in
the House bill (October 29, 2009 CBO report on House bill, pages 8-9.
The Senate bill has a mandatory appropriation of $15 billion (December
19 CBO report on Senate bill, pages 12, 32-33.) Dietary and other
behavioral pseudo-science are mixed together with legitimate science in
the appropriation.
Republican
Senator sponsored the fraud-based "wellness" provision: "Weight
gain and unhealthy lifestyles that focus on smoking and lack of
exercise have sky-rocketed our healthcare costs," said the sponsor of
the provision, Sen. John Ensign (R-Nev.), in a statement when the
Finance Committee adopted his amendment in a bipartisan vote. (Advocacy
Groups Protest Wellness Provision in Senate Healthcare Bill. By Emily
P. Walker, Washington Correspondent, MedPage Today, Jan. 7, 2010.)
Blathers Ensign, "Rather than more government, I believe the free market is the answer." What a tower of dishonesty! Anyone who believed in the free market would want to take away the health insurance companies' special tax subsidy, that they hawk to their customers as "free money," which is the very root of their corrupt business plan! "Choice is fundamental, and choice can drive down the cost of your health care." He and his Congressional accomplices are the ones who want to take our choice away, by forcing us to buy private insurance!
"Part of this answer includes incentives to encourage healthy behavior and maintain preventive care. For example, the grocery company Safeway learned that about 70% of its healthcare costs are driven by behavior and four conditions drive those costs – obesity, smoking, high blood pressure and high cholesterol. By managing these conditions through incentives for employees, Safeway reduced its healthcare costs by nearly 40%."
In fact, Safeway didn't "learn" any such thing; it's merely a health fascist article of faith with no scientific support. "The Safeway employees involved are salaried management, who make upwards of $50,000, and the only division, Genuardi's in Pennsylvania and New Jersey, which is non-union. So out of over 200,000 employees, around 25,000 are affected. As for keeping costs contained - with penalties for non-compliance to Safeway voluntary 'health standards,' full-time Genuardi employees can easily pay over $170 per week for premium health coverage." (Gwen Charles, blog post re How Safeway Is Cutting Health-Care Costs. By Steven A. Burd. Wall Street Journal, June 12, 2009.) Those corporate elites are exactly the kind of people whose health costs routinely exceed those of workers in the first place. Furthermore, the company's insurance costs are set by negotiation, not itemization, and as primary beneficiaries of this outrage, health insurance companies have a special interest in rewarding Safeway for helping to manufacture political propaganda.
"Imagine saving nearly 40% on your healthcare expenses!" Ensign
burbles. His scheme for these "savings" consists of unjustly fining
anyone who doesn't participate in these charlatan programs, in order to
reward the true believers in his fraudulent health cult. And make
special note of how he rants that "The government-takeover plan comes
with an enormous price tag, and it will put a bureaucrat between you
and your doctor." Presumably he is referring to single-payer.
Meanwhile, he and his ilk propose to jam their worthless hogwash down
our throats, bolstered by government subsidies to the
insurance companies! (How to Cut Healthcare Costs. By Sen. John Ensign.
Accessed Jan. 8, 2010.)
"[A] review of Safeway documents and interviews with company
officials show that the company did not keep health-care costs flat for
four years. Those costs did drop in 2006 -- by 12.5 percent. That was
when the company overhauled its benefits, according to Safeway Senior
Vice President Ken Shachmut." Costs resumed their climb after 2006. "Even as Burd
claimed last year to have held costs flat, Safeway was forecasting that
per capita expenses for its employees would rise by 8.5 percent in
2009. According to a survey of 1,700 health plans by the benefits
consultant Hewitt Associates, the average increase nationally was 6.1
percent." "Burd's assertions about the program's success
made
him a rock star on Capitol Hill. He pressed his case in briefings for
Senate Democrats and Republicans and in a May meeting with President
Obama." Other moronic true believers who fawned over Burd's lies
include Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), Sen. Thomas
Carper (D-DE), and Sen. John
McCain (R-AZ). (Misleading claims about
Safeway wellness incentives shape health-care bill. By David S.
Hilzenrath. Washington Post, Jan. 17, 2010.)
At the June 11, 2009 Senate hearing, Burd parroted the Big Lie that
"70% of health
care costs are driven by behavior;" and goosed it up to 75% to please
his adoring crowd; and also claimed that "78% of our employees
absolutely love this plan," and that it would cost Safeway an extra $27
million to not have "financial incentives." Sen. Tom Harkin (D-IA)
proclaimed his "great deal of admiration" for Burd, Sen. Barb Mikulski
(D-MD) gushed over Safeway, Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-TN) expressed his
support, and Sens. Jeff Merkley (D-OR) and Thomas Dodd (D-CT) praised
him. (Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions,
Health Reform Hearing, Jun. 11, 2009, Panel 1.)
At the June 17, 2009 Senate morning hearing, Sen. Mike Enzi (R-WY)
said of Burd's baloney, "we know these strategies will lower costs,"
and Sen. Richard Burr (R-NC) claimed that self-insured companies like
Safeway "saved money... because it kept their employees well." In the
afternoon session, Sen Kay Hagan (D-NC) claimed that prevention and
wellness "will save us billions;" Sen. Tom Coburn MD (R-OK) claimed
that government can't do "what a Steve Burd has done at Safeway;"
blamed Medicaid for low birthweight babies; claimed states would save
"at least a trillion dollars" from the Patient's Choice Act; and
praised "Dr. Cooper in Texas."
Steven A. Burd was a management consultant with Arthur D. Little
from 1982 to 1987, when he started his own firm. "Mr. Burd is a
longtime management consultant to Safeway, who was deeply involved in
developing and implementing strategy for the company during the period
from 1986 to 1988, after its leveraged
buyout by management and Kohlberg, Kravis, Roberts & Company." He
worked with other clients in the retail and food industries from
1988 to 1991. (A New President Is Chosen At Safeway Supermarkets. New
York Times, Oct. 29, 1992.) Burd was the son of a railroad-yard
superintendant, and "grew up in a variety of small Midwestern towns."
He graduated from the University of Wisconsin and got a masters degree
in economics there. He came to Fred Meyer's department stores, owned by
Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co., as a "shadowy consultant" in 1991.
(Dealmakers cast shadow over city's business scene. By Steven D. Jones.
Portland Business Journal, Nov. 8, 1996.) He has been President of
Safeway since
1992, CEO and a director since 1993, and Chairman since 1998. He has
also been a director of Kohl’s Corporation since 2001. There does not
appear to be any documentation of Burd's claims, just editorials,
speeches and PowerPoints.
Burd's "Coalition to Advance Healthcare Reform" claims to represent
companies which employ 1.7 million workers. Besides KKR, Kohl’s
Department Stores, and Safeway, and associated grocery suppliers
(Bumble
Bee Seafoods, Coca-Cola, Del Monte Foods, General Mills, H. J. Heinz
Company, J.M. Smucker, Kraft Foods, Kroger, Land O’Lakes, Lund Food
Holdings, PepsiCo, Wm. Wrigley Jr. Company) and retailers (Brookshire
Grocery Company, C&S Wholesale Grocers, Giant Eagle, Publix Super
Markets, Unified Western Grocers, United Supermarkets, Ltd., Wegmans
Food Markets, Winco Foods), it includes the health insurance companies
Aetna, Cigna, and Humana, PacifiCare A United Healthcare Company, Blue
Shield of California, Hospital Corporation of America, Kaiser
Permanente, and CVS/Caremark; big pharmas Eli Lilly and Company,
GlaxoSmithKline, McKesson Corporation, Merck & Co, and Pfizer Inc.;
a few other corporations: Illinois Tool Works, Kimberly-Clark
Corporation, Norfolk Southern Corporation, Rockwell Automation,
Rockwell Collins; and a banker, Morgan Stanley.
Safeway was taken over in 1987 by Kohlberg
Kravis Roberts, shortly before this group took over RJR Nabisco Holdings
(R.J. Reynolds Tobacco), as part
of an organized scheme to loot smokers. In
1994, KKR partners Henry
R. Kravis, George R. Roberts, Michael T. Tokarz and James H. Greene Jr.
were directors of both Safeway and RJR.
Paul Mandeville Hazen has been a director of Safeway since 1990. He
was President of Wells Fargo & Co. from 1984 to 1995, and Chairman
from 1995 until retiring in 2001. He is Chairman and a director of KKR
Financial Corp. (Corporate bios, SEC.) He received his BS in Finance at
the University of Arizona in 1963, and MBA at the University of
California-Berkeley in 1964. (NNDB). His mother, Mrs. Linn Hazen, was a
fundraiser and secretary of the American Cancer Society (Treasurer
Makes First Contribution. Tucson Daily Citizen, Apr. 4, 1953;
Re-Elected. Tucson Daily Citizen, Sep. 11, 1959), and a fundraiser for
the Heart Fund. (Latest Word: Ball At Skyline. Tucson Daily Citizen,
Feb. 11, 1968.) His uncle, Harold Locke Hazen, retired as Dean of the
graduate school at MIT. He was also dean of foreign students at MIT,
and was on the board of Robert College in Istanbul, Turkey, and of the
College of Saudi Arabia. (Tucson Seen. By Betty Milburn. Tucson Daily
Citizen, Apr. 17, 1968.)
Dr. Wayne B. Jonas was the second director of the former Office of
Alternative Medicine, now the National Center for Complementary and
Alternative Medicine, after its promoter, Sen. Tom Harkin (D-IA) drove the first
one out with accusations of being too scientific. Jonas peddled his
"Wellness Initiative for the Nation (WIN) at the Samueli Institute.
(Statement of Wayne B. Jonas, MD, President and CEO, The Samueli
Institute. Hearing on "Health Care Reform Legislative Options," Senate
Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions, Jun. 11, 2009.)
These frauds claim that "Seventy percent of avoidable costs could be
mitigated by behavior changes that involve healthy lifestyle
development, wellness enhancement, and early detection and intervention
for the conditions listed above. Two‐thirds
of chronic illness is caused by lifestyle and behavioral factors that
are influenced by our mental, social or physical
environments." The justification for this is an editorial by McGinnis et al. which in turn is based on his
flagrantly obsolete 1993 "study" that virtually ignored the role of
infection. (A Wellness Initiative for the Nation, Summary Document.)
The "Wellness Initiative for the Nation" in turn peddles a swarm of
clone platforms, including "The Obama-Biden plan for health reform,
specifically the goal to promote prevention and strengthen public
health;" Healthy People 2010; a "Wellness Trust," peddled by the
leftist Center for American Progress; Sen. Tom Daschle's "Federal Health
Reserve;" based on his book; and other fascist dreck.
"Under the proposed Trust, a new set of payment policies would be
developed for preventive services. The national services provided by
the Trust,—such as quit lines for smokers—would be delivered through
competitive contracts with private entities. A large wellness
“industry” would emerge as evidence of returns on investment increases"
(page 13). Return on WHOSE so-called "investments"? This is nothing but
a scheme for robbing the taxpayers, for the profit of their cronies,
for "services" the people don't want. Especially smokers, and other
targets of their war of cultural genocide (page 15). (Promoting
Prevention and Preempting Costs. A New Wellness Trust for the United
States. By Jeanne M. Lambrew, PhD and John D. Podesta, JD. Center for
American Progress, October 5, 2006.)
Despite their pretense of opposition, the "conservatives" helped them get away with it, every step of the way. Their rants about "free enterprise versus government healthcare" are nothing but a straw man. The health insurance companies are actually the biggest enemies of free enterprise. Since the 1940s, they have been the beneficiaries of tax exemptions for the cost of healthcare which cost the taxpayers $246 billion a year. Everyone who has ever been offered employer-paid health insurance knows that it's peddled as "free money." This is how they rigged the system to funnel customers to themselves.
The "conservatives" want us to blame the wrong culprits and attack
the wrong enemy, every single time. Their cheap union-bashing of the
Service Employees International Union is a perfect example. The only
reason SEIU looks powerful is because it's a tool of The
Robert Wood
Johnson Foundation. All their supposed ideas and positions about
health
and healthcare come from RWJF, not the workers. The Robert Wood Johnson
Foundation vouches for them and
opens the doors of corporate boardrooms for them. As a shill for the
health fascists, he sells out workers' basic human dignity of running
their own lives. Those are the reasons the health industry employers
are
eager to make deals with them.
SEIU's core organizing is in building services, the public sector
and healthcare. "Internal memos--obtained by SF Weekly--show that two
large SEIU locals had made a deal with a group of California nursing
homes, in which SEIU agreed that workers would not speak out publicly
against abuse of patients, or health code violations, and would lobby
for limiting patients' right to sue. (SEIU later backed out of its
commitment to tort reform.) In exchange, the union could organize a
certain number of nursing homes without interference. The SF Weekly
story was based in part on an internal report from one of the largest
locals involved in the deal, United Healthcare Workers West
(UHW-West)." Even their members admit their contracts are bad. That's
why the CEO of Wal-Mart was happy to be part of "Better Health Care
Together," a coalition of business, labor and political leaders,
"formed by" SEIU's president, Andy Stern. (Andy Stern: Savior or
Sellout? By Liza Featherstone. The Nation, Jul. 16, 2007.) Meanwhile,
the "conservatives" help them polish their reputation and give them a
cover story with stale clichés about "union goons."
Members of Dennis Rivera's original union, Local 1199 of the Drug, Hospital and Health Care Employees Union, were mainly "low-paid black and Hispanic women who mostly work in hospitals, clinics and other health-related operations." (Hospital Workers' Chief Loses in Power Struggle. By Douglas Martin. New York Times, Nov. 16, 1987.) The union was originally organized by three leftist professional organizers. (University Presses; Tough Red Union. By Joe Klein. New York Times, Sep. 24, 1989.)
University Presses; Tough Red Union / New York Times Rivera is one of the notables of the Democratic Party
of New York City. The media anointed him "the brightest new star in
Hispanic politics." (A New Face for American Labor. By Sam Roberts. New
York Times, May 10, 1992.) Rivera wanted to use New York's tobacco
settlement money, the money stolen from smokers, to cover health costs
of low-income people. (Albany Weighs Tobacco Funds For Health Care. By
Jennifer Steinhauer. New York Times, Jan. 25, 1999.) Dennis Rivera "largely orchestrated" the
negotiations to raise New York's cigarette tax to $1.11 a pack, the
highest of any state. (New York Raising Tax on Cigarettes
to Help Uninsured. By Raymond Hernandez. New York Times, Dec. 18,
1999.) "[A]sk any lawmaker or lobbyist who made this plan happen, and
fingers point immediately to a behind-the-scenes player who is not even
a state official: Dennis Rivera, president of 1199, New York State's
largest health care union." Rivera bullied the politicians into
submission by threatening to run ads attacking them. "Arguably the most
unusual aspect of Mr. Rivera's lobbying campaign was that it was made
possible by the Wall Street boom, which had put more than ample money
in the union's pension plan through its investments. In its
latest contract, the
union allowed hospitals to forgo pension contributions for several
months, and millions of dollars that would have gone to those
contributions went instead into 1199's and the hospitals' Planning and
Placement Fund." (Getting Tobacco to
Fund Health Care for Have-Nots. By Steven Greenhouse. New York Times,
Dec. 27, 1999.)
This phony boom,
which ultimately crashed the economy and threw tens of millions of
people into distress, was
engineered by trustees of The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation who were
also officials of the infamous insurer AIG.
In particular, Edward E. Matthews, senior vice chairman of investments
and financial services at AIG, who should have automatically been a
prime suspect in its financial misdeeds. Instead of an investigation,
AIG got a bailout, because President Obama is nothing but a puppet of
AIG and RWJF himself. So this is how those pretended Robin Hoods have
helped the plight of the have-nots.
A New York Times writer rewarded him with praise: "Dennis Rivera,
president of New York State's largest health care union: Trifecta
award, for being the legislative, executive and lobbying force behind
doubling the cigarette tax to provide health care for one million more
uninsured New Yorkers." (Metro Matters; Small Tokens For the Movers And
Shakers. By Joyce Purnick. New York Times, Dec. 30, 1999.) Rivera was a
member of the Democratic National Committee for seven years. (Head of
Health Workers' Union Leaves the Democratic Committee. By Steven
Greenhouse. New York Times, Jan. 24, 2002.) New York Governor
George Pataki's health bill squandered the opportunity to create a $1.1
billion trust fund from the conversion of Empire Blue Cross Blue
Shield, by rewarding union members for their political support with a
pay raise. (Metro Matters. Flying Shoes, Health Care and Politics. By
Joyce Purnick. New York Times, Apr. 4, 2002.) Theresa A. Bischoff,
president of New York University Hospitals Center, resigned after it
was revealed that she had a "personal relationship" with Rivera.
(N.Y.U. Hospitals Center's President to Resign. By Alison Leigh Cowan.
New York Times, Jan. 25, 2003.) Anti-smoker Mayor Michael Bloomberg hired Patrick Brennan,
political field director from 1199/S.E.I.U. for his re-election
campaign. (Bloomberg Hires Political Pros, One From a Labor Union. By
Michael Slackman. New York Times, Jan. 15, 2005.) A writer for the New
York Times made the ridiculous claim that "Washington insiders are
impressed and surprised that it was a union leader — Mr. Rivera — who
forged a coalition including giant drug makers, the health insurers,
the American Hospital Association and the American Medical Association
that helped secure their pledges to cut hundreds of billions of dollars
in costs." Rivera advocated a single-payer system [thus his main role
was to con the leftists into supporting the bill]. (Dennis Rivera Leads
Labor Charge for Health Reform. By Steven Rittenhouse. New York Times,
Aug. 26, 2009.) The outrageous lie is in pretending that Rivera is
anything other than a front man for the same corrupt
powers-behind-the-throne as ever. Nancy-Ann
DeParle, head of the White House Office of Health Reform, is a
former board member of RWJF.
As chairman of SEIU healthcare, he got his seat at the healthcare
reform hearings courtesy of The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. He was
groomed for his role, which
largely consisted of parroting the RWJF slogan ("We need a new national
culture of health"), since at least Feb.
2008. (Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Launches Commission to Look
Beyond Medical Care System to Improve the Health of All Americans. Feb.
28, 2008.) RWJF's "Commission to Build a Healthier America," includes
representatives from Harvard University,
the mothership of
charlatanism; Wal-Mart; Sen. Bill Frist (in person); The Bill &
Melinda Gates Foundation; and a shill from ABC News. (Webinar: Creating
Healthy Communities. RWJF Grants, Jul. 29, 2009.)
Its supposed
justification under the Interstate Commerce clause is based on the
outrageous claim that the financial well-being of the health insurance
companies trumps every interest of the people!
The Constitutionality of the Individual Mandate for Health
Insurance. By Jack M. Balkin, J.D., Ph.D. [of Yale Law School, speaking
through the house organ of the Harvard charalatans, the New England
Journal of Medicine]. N Engl J Med 2010 Jan 13. [Epub ahead of print].
He tells us that the individual mandate is designed to "coax [!!!!]
uninsured persons into purchasing insurance," when it is naked
compulsion. He pretends that a few approved exemptions that negate its
compulsory aspects for the vast majority. He pretends that "it is not
actually a mandate. It is a tax, which people would not have to pay if
they purchased health insurance." This begs the point of why should
they have to buy it in the first place.
He pretends that it's just like a "penalty tax" for not filing your tax return promptly. As if people have a civil obligation to purchase any other product of a private company! He pretends that "The constitutional test is whether Congress could reasonably conclude that its taxing and spending programs promote the general welfare of the country," and claims that "This test is easily satisfied." Namely, that if it's good for the insurance companies to force "younger and healthier" people into their pool, in the name of lowering their suckers' premiums, that is sufficient - while ignoring the fact that it is the taxpayers who foot most of the bill for the elderly, whose costs are the highest, and that the insurance companies' core business plan is to dump those costs on the taxpayers. He also ignores the fact that insured people are already the beneficiaries of a tax subsidy that costs the government $246 billion in lost revenue, from which the uninsured do not benefit and are forced to help replace.
He pretends that not buying insurance is an economic activity, and
thus subject to regulation, under the pretext that the uninsured use
other means to pay for their health care. "When uninsured people get
sick, they rely on their families for financial support, go to
emergency rooms (often passing costs on to others [which they would do
anyhow if they have no money]), or purchase over-the-counter remedies.
They substitute these activities for paying premiums to health
insurance companies." So, this is the key to everything - that people
must not be permitted to substitute anything for paying premiums to
health insurance companies! He wants to demonize our basic human right
to take care of ourselves as some kind of anti-social act, purely
because it is not suborndinate to THEM. "All these activities are
economic, and they have a cumulative effect on interstate commerce," he
lazily rationalizes.
As a final demonstration of his power-mad hubris, he pretends that
for the Supreme Court to uphold the rights of the American people and
strike down this provision as unconstitutional would be a
"constitutional revolution."
That is the kind of unadulterated Nazi swill the corrupt politicians
and their media shills are serving! And now here's some sanity from the
Heritage Foundation. Why the Personal Mandate to Buy Health Insurance
Is Unprecedented and Unconstitutional. By Randy Barnett, Nathaniel
Stewart and Todd F. Gaziano. Legal Memorandum #49, Dec. 9, 2009.
Crossing Our Lines - Working Together to Reform the U.S. Health
System. By Howard Baker, Tom Daschle, and Bob Dole
[and the lobbyists of former Sens. Dole (R-KS) and Daschle (D-SD) at
Alston+Bird and Baker (R-TN) at Baker and Donelson, under the auspices
of
The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the Brookings Institution], June
2009.
See "Pillar Three: Emphasizing and Supporting Personal Responsibility
and Healthy Choices," page 46. "First, a key component of the Leaders’
comprehensive health care reform package is a requirement that all
Americans should have, at a minimum, basic health insurance coverage."
That means forcing people to buy health insurance. "Second, the Leaders
strongly endorse efforts to increase the nation’s focus on clinical and
population-based prevention and wellness as a means to improve
Americans’ health. A large and growing proportion of our health
spending is currently going toward chronic diseases, and the frequent
occurrence of preventable and costly complications of these diseases
creates an imperative to take major steps toward both clinical and
population-based prevention. While many factors contribute to obesity
and other chronic diseases, there are clear, changeable patient
behaviors, like quitting smoking, following a nutritious diet, and
exercising regularly, that can influence their occurrence and
severity." That's a pile of health fascist BS, founded on
pseudo-science and fraudulent cost claims, which were manufactured by the Centers for
Disease Control on the command of those corrupt politicians themselves!
The basis of their lies is the CDC's propaganda screed, "The Power
of Prevention 2009." They lie that "More than 80% of lung cancers are
due to smoking or exposure to secondhand smoke," page 3. They are
guilty of flagrant scientific fraud for ignoring more than 50 studies,
which show that human papillomaviruses are involved in at least a
quarter of non-small cell lung cancers. The
CDC lies that "Increased consumption of fruits and vegetables helps
reduce the risk for heart disease and certain cancers as well," page 7.
But a $625 million, taxpayer-funded, randomized controlled dietary modification trial
on 165,000 women after eight years showed no benefits of dietary
modification on breast cancer, colorectal cancer, cardiovascular
disease, or bone fractures. The CDC lies that "Every year, an estimated
443,000 people die prematurely from smoking or exposure to secondhand
smoke." They're guilty of deliberate fraud for ignoring the evidence
that, since the 1970s, the death rates from heart disease have declined
just as much among smokers as among non-smokers, and of purposely
cherry-picking data to falsely blame secondhand
smoke for heart disease. They lie that smoking cost $96 billion in
direct medical expenditures in 2004, page 8. This lie is based on the
CDC's deliberately fraudulent SAMMEC
computer program, which on top of the preceding frauds deliberately
falsely blames smoking for cancers which are known to be virtually
entirely caused by infection, including cervical
cancer and stomach cancer, as well as other cancers, perinatal
illnesses, and other diseases known to be caused by infection, by
using defective studies based on nothing but lifestyle questionnaires.
Furthermore, those bogus "costs" are concocted by pretending that costs
paid by smokers were paid by non-smokers, and that there are no
offsetting costs arising from the fact that people die eventually
anyhow!
Look at the Nazi plank of the 2008
Republican "Health Care Reform"
platform: "Prevent Disease and End the 'Sick Care' System... Chronic
diseases – in many cases, preventable conditions – are driving health
care costs, consuming three of every four health care dollars. We can
reduce demand for medical care by fostering personal responsibility
within a culture of wellness, while increasing access to preventive
services, including improved nutrition and breakthrough medications
that keep people healthy and out of the hospital. To reduce the
incidence of diabetes, cancer, heart disease, and stroke, we call for a
national grassroots campaign [Sic! Jammed down our throats by
government edict!] against obesity, especially among children. We call
for continuation of efforts to decrease use of tobacco, especially
among the young."
Once those scumbag Republicans have endorsed forced health insurance and health fascist charlatanism, there is nothing of any consequence that they can pretend to be opposed to in the current proposals. It proves that the only difference between the Democrats and the Republicans is that the Republicans pretend to be something they're not. This explains why the Republicans have let the health fascists get away with their lies and fraud for decade after decade, and why there hasn't been a peep of protest from them about these most outrageous abominations. The real game they're playing is called, "trying to trick the people into blaming the Democrats only."
<= HOMEcast 03-06-10