Politics as usual

If you’re following “The Great Healthcare Debate," read between the lines and you’ll realize it has little to do with healthcare at all. It's all about raging. Partisan raging. Democrats and Republicans jockeying for political advantage. It's not about saving lives, it's about saving their seats and getting re-elected. Just listen to the politicians bark along their party lines and it’s clear that not one so far has experienced the truth of our system.  An example? This item from the Associated Press:

“Carly Fiorina, a former Hewlett-Packard Co. chief executive, breast cancer survivor and a Republican candidate running for the Senate seat from California now held by Democrat Barbara Boxer, delivered the address. She said that the recommendation on mammograms was an early taste of what could happen under the Democrats' plan.

"’We wonder if we are heading down a path where the federal government will at first suggest and then mandate new standards for prevention and treatment,’ Fiorina said. ‘Do we really want government bureaucrats rather than doctors dictating how we prevent and treat something like breast cancer?’"

What she doesn't know or didn't experience herself is that insurance companies already do that. What's the difference if it's government bureaucrats or Blue Cross bureaucrats?

There is no difference.  

Insurance companies dictate what they’ll pay for, therefore they dictate treatments. I can't believe I actually used the word “therefore.”