The Fraud of Private Healthcare and Other Supply-side Criminals
Would you purchase a big ticket item such as a kitchen appliance or an automobile and put up with the fact that it does not perform properly? In other words, a refrigerator which does not cool properly? Likely, you would be upset and demand something better, right? Or you would just put up with the lack of performance of the product purchased? Would you?
This is called supply AND demand economics. Since Reagan and his lousy despicable statement that “government is the problem,” we have moved to deregulation by government and firm control by the supply side in the economy as we have created these big corporate conglomerates on the supply side. These corporate conglomerates have put small businesses out while CEOs of the big corporate conglomerates have seen salaries rise by 1000% since the 1970s, squelched retirement possibilities (pensions, etc.) for the Middle Class, and literally helped destroy the living wage as prices of housing and other commodities have risen astronomically.
In Jeb Bush’s Florida, the price of a home rose some 125% from 2001 to 2006 and the time of the Great Recession. Short-term greed is winning over America’s ability to have long-term CAPITALIST investment in housing, as had been the case when the Democrats were in charge. These are historical facts speaking, not my emotions and my own facts. It is not meant to impart MY opinion, but to teach by using historical FACTS. It is being done in the name of “free markets.” To the common folk, I have always said, when it comes to flipping homes, be careful what you wish for.
In Florida, Rick the Prick Scott, who now sits in the U.S. Senate, blamed Gov. Crist for all of that and that recession. The election of Gov. Crist was in 2006, just as the housing market burst and before he was in office. He did not take the office of governor until 2007 as this nation was already on the path to recession. Yet, the stupidity of those, particularly Trumpicans, never saw the facts and just relied on what Rick the Prick and Fox News said.
Here we are in 2021. We elected President Joe Biden. And yes, you dumb scum who proclaim fraud when there was little or no fraud, only many black people getting out to vote. If that is fraud than you people can go f**k yourselves. (Is that fork yourselves?). Consider that if the majority in the Georgia and Florida legislatures are REPUBLICANS, then, they, too, must have been elected by fraud. In Florida, it was due to efforts of Republicans like Jebbie and others to get black folks off the voting roles and something called gerrymandering which placed congressional and legislative districts in the hands of white power leadership from internal Florida while screwing the multi-racial areas on the coasts.
In that 2020 election, Trump talked about “keeping healthcare private.” Keep it private, huh? That is such a success story, don’t you know? Success for white wealthy fat cats. The rest of us are damned. During the years preceding the Great Recession, Republicans were in charge in Washington and privatized Medicare by adding this sicko convoluted idea to protect big pharma – big corporate conglomerates – in SUPPLY-SIDE ECONOMICS. It is sicko as convoluted tiers are created and put brand name drugs on tier three and subjected to the “donut hole” or the “medigap” principle in which senior citizens have to pay huge amounts that only wealthy ones in the DEMAND-SIDE of the market can afford in order to purchase brand name medications. Furthermore, these bastards called Republicans REGULATED the market and did NOT allow insurance companies to offer insurance with a premium which COULD be a lower annual cost for these medications because there is a pooled resource to help pay for them.
First of all, there should be no tier three. There should be no “donut hole.” These are all to benefit the SUPPLY-SIDE called big pharma. It’s a fraud. We listen as they whine and whine and whine about the necessity for this. They can have a little cheese with their hate-ridden “wine.” (“H” in whine represents hate).
In capitalist terms, these senior citizens still pay into Medicare with every Social Security check. These senior citizens have paid into Medicare for some 50 or 60 years, so they have built up a CAPITALIST INVESTMENT. The capitalist investment these days goes into private companies like big pharma and big insurance who whine, whine, and whine that they don’t have enough, should they not have this form of SUPPLY-SIDE ECONOMICS which screws the DEMAND-SIDE and no one is there to protect the DEMAND-SIDE, unless one files for “financial assistance.” That is an insult to us because we have already INVESTED in this market and are being treated like a bunch of hoodlum fat cats who own most of the stock in a company and then pull the reverse Robin Hood method of taking from the lower classes and giving to the 1% of s*** which controls the stock. And Trump thought the economy was doing well. For those of the 1% at the top, the fat cats, sure the economy was doing well for them. The rest of us? HUH! Not that well. Some of us better than others. It is disgusting to note that 70M stupid stupido voters went along with that whining 1% as promoted by freaking lousy Fox News and other media outlets.
Let me return to my opening statements about how one would not purchase an appliance with no expectation it would perform well. In addition to Medicare investments by senior citizens like me, many of us have also invested over the long term in private insurance. Many have not, unless we had an employer who provided such insurance. We took a cut in pay as the employer invested in insurance, in order to make the claim that THEY were the ones investing in it for their greedy selfish means only – to make sure their employees were healthy enough to work for them. If not well enought, then POOF – go on your merry way. In the last years of my employment, I was also asked to contribute into this insurance and denied a decent salary raise considering the cost of living in South Florida. All this was RUN by Republicans and I find them all to be a bunch of lousy jerks who were NOT like the Republican Party to which I once belonged.
So I paid into this privatized health insurance debacle and now I am being told I have to cough up tons of money for “tier three” bull manure of privatized Medicare with its donut hole. One plus to such measures is that I identified the medications which were not working and for which me and my employer paid for all those years and asked to have them dropped. In other words, I had been paying for a healthcare “refrigerator” that did not cool very well.
And how does healthcare respond? Mocking me by dropping a brand name medication and replacing it with another brand name medication that does not work as well as the first one and I pay almost as much. I have a brand name “stove” of medication that is not a good quality and I pay almost as much as the lousy “stove.” Am I putting this matter in proper perspective or am I just to be ignored, as always?
Then one of the brand name meds, Ozempic, spends tons of money on commercials, something that, along with lawyer commercials, never existed when America was a better nation in the past (before Reagan and supply-side economics), telling us that “most can reach an A1C below seven.” MOST? Where is the proof? Where is the evidence? Because I can say that Ozempic helped me lower my A1C, but it has yet to go below seven, in spite of the fact I have been taking Ozempic for just about a dozen years now. I guess I am just that lousy minority of people for whom the med does not work as well, in spite of my avid exercise regimen and following diets to reduce my weight by some 40 pounds during 2020. I consider that to be a fraud, but I guess I am wrong. OK. So my medication “dishwasher” works fairly close to high quality, but not that much.
My father’s small business selling big ticket items like “white” appliances no longer exists in this small rural town. Yet, he made a business capable of sending three kids to college and giving him a mobile home in Florida. He did not horde tons of money, as the jackass fat cats at the top of corporations do. But he survived, sometimes financially better than many who bring home revenue from an employer. He was self-employed. How many opportunities like that exist today, now with big box Lowe’s Home Depot, Best Buy, and others being the primary source of appliances these days? They can sell at a lower “high volume” price tag, but then nickel and dime the demand-side of the market with service and installation costs. My dad did not have to do this.
In fact, I recall getting my wisdom teeth removed (in my 20s) because my father traded the surgery for an installation of a washer and drier in the home of the surgeon who removed my teeth. They were Maytag brands and my bet is they might STILL be in operation today, as I have heard others tell me about. In the days before the reverse Robin Hood thieves increased their salaries (ripoff) by 1000%, America made a quality product in Newton, Iowa.
Where is that Maytag factory today? Bet it is not there and Whirlpool makes washers and driers overseas, puts the Maytag name plate on them and people do not even realize the fraud and the lie perpetrated by 1% of the population which has gained 1000% in salary (I said that already), plugged up the tax credits for research and development, and “look for other tax scandal ways to receive tax credits. These yahoos have privatized” things with the advantage of that 1% regulating their own market, rather than the government which is now controlled by such fascist yahoos and rubber stamps what these fascist wealthy do. We get lousy products in America and, according to Trump, are supposed to be impressed by “private” business. These fascist fat cats have created a style of society like that of a communist government in the former Soviet Union where the Russians are now controlled by a freaking lousy one-time KGB agent of that communist government.
Tioga Herald 
Town of Newark Valley proposition for appointments rather than election
Dear Editor:
The election is over. Based on preliminary results, I understand that the Newark Valley town proposition to change elections such as the Newark Valley Town Highway Superintendent to an appointed position by the town council was defeated. Prior to the election, I remained silent. Perhaps I should have spoken out because, once again, I observed that emotions from the loudest mouths who were opposed to such a change swayed the herd mentality so as to convince people to vote on the measure based on what angry people say with a loud mouth than to consider logic and reasoning of the situation. “Logic clearly dictates that the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few.”(A statement in a Star Trek movie by Mr. Spock character played by Leonard Nimoy, at the point Mr. Spock was about to die). How sad for Newark Valley. How sad for New York. How sad for the USA. Logic thrown out the window.
It is a shame that the ballots could not have contained information as to the REASONS behind the thought about changing it. As a result, only the loud mouths who blistered this notion were heard.
For instance,some of what I heard in the repetitive forces were as follows.
(1) “Political appointments remove the opportunity for the people to speak.”
(2) “Political appointments mean that those unqualified would be appointed, due to patronage.” (3) “Political appointments give opportunities for the ‘good old boy’ network to operate.”
Logic is thrown out the window in favor of false ideas about our life and politics. Let us take a closer look at this tripe.
Number 1. Political appointments remove the opportunity for the people to speak.
Really? In the election which just passed, I had no opportunity to speak through the ballot box. While I am not in disagreement with the person chosen, why was I not able to have a choice? Because I am a registered Democrat and the choices were made in a Republican primary. There are independent voters who don’t want to be affiliated with either political party. At times, I wish I were independent and it is frustrating that there are no Democratic Party primaries. Yet, a stupid Republican once called those of us here who are Democrats as “Dumicrats.” To that person, I could say Republidumbheads.” I can also think of a very nasty word for Republicans, but I won’t offer it. There are Green Party and Libertarians, etc., etc., etc.No such people are able to vote in a Republican primary. Where is the “voice of the people?” At least when someone is considered for appointment to an office, people may be given a chance to attend a town council meeting and voice approval. Otherwise, there is a segment of the population which is screwed.
In this case, perhaps Republicans would say the simple solution for me would have been to register as a Republican, right? So, let’s create a one-party state. Oh, that’s right. A one-party state in Newark Valley is not a new thing at all. In fact, I knew people who moved here as Democrats and, in order to become involved in the politics here, dumped their Democratic Party affiliation and became Republicans. Excuse me. But one-party states existed in Hitler’s Germany and the Bolsheviks and Marxist/communists of Russia and the Soviet Union.
One possible solution would be for New York State, rather than putting a stupid thing on the ballot about New York City judicial funding, put a proposition on the ballot to allow people to go to the polls on election day and simply declare one party as the designated party to vote in a primary. That would give more voices. I have heard of states which do this and have other similar processes as solutions to such a problem. I might add that in the state where I spent nearly 40 years, they do not have such a solution, but some people spoke up in favor of such solutions for primaries. But alas, Republicans of Florida don’t want people to vote and are putting forth adverse laws to restrict voting. Why would such a state even consider such when it works to discourage voters since the Republicans created a one-party state, beginning with Jeb Bush.
“Logic clearly dictates that the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few.”
Number 2. Political appointments mean that those unqualified would be appointed, due to patronage.
What about the unqualified who can run for a job and are not qualified to be highway superintendent, clerk, or what ever? What about the example of a relative of mine who was very qualified for an office, due to bookkeeping skills possessed by this person and appointed by both Republicans AND Democrats to a job? No patronage there. So it is possible, with the right people elected to leadership roles in the government councils and executive offices. Perhaps the “voice” of the people should spend more time investigating those who are elected into the town, village, city, or county councils of government. I don’t argue that it is not possible for the existence of patronage. I am sure it does happen all the time. But to cast a pessimistic aspersion on something which might be a good solution is absurd. With herd mentality spreading potentially false information is a stereotypical tarnishing of ideas.
Number 3. Political appointments give opportunities for the “good old boy network” to operate.
False. This statement is like taking offense of anything we do as humans with human institutions always results in a “godd old boy network.” Such networks exist, but there is proof that sometimes they do not exist. The man appointed to supervise operations of a village lawn, street, sidewalk maintenance and garbage collection service, with only an 8th grade education and not wealthy by any stretch of the imagination, might NOT be acceptable to accountants, lawyers, business people and others who are in positions of responsibility, but just might do a good job. One such example did exist one time. I do know a thing or two from history.
My mantra has become this. Human beings and human institutions cannot possibly be perfect. If people knew Christian values, they should realize this. Yet, how many people continue to consider humans or human institutions in whom they have a “beef” as not living up to expectations in terms of perfection. With the president prior to our current one, I spent time TRYING to find things which demonstrated a leader. In contrast to his paranoid views that “everyone was out to get him” in terms of a “witchhunt,” I knew a number of people who tried to turn around some of his bad. Each time I became disappointed. However, I did not hold an expectation of perfection when going into consideration of the man. On the same token, I can say the same about a former governor. There were some things I may have disagreed, but there also may have been some things I disagreed. I did not wish to tarnish his image ONLY on the things in which I disagreed. And this governor had some factors which were the same as the former president for whom the religious right swept under the rug.
Main point. Making appointments by the Newark Valley Town Council is not a bad idea when the village of Newark Valley haas been doing it for many years and has been successful in its endeavors. It was the people’s voice in the village which voted against a sewage system and natural gas lines within the village limits. It was the village which first introduced cable television to the area and regulated the cable television. It was the FCC, including many Republicans at a higher level, and other agencies which removed local control of cable television and endorsed the huge corporate conglomerates, through deregulation, which destroyed local business. It would behoove local people to take on these issues at the local level than to be concerned about whether or not we cannot possibly handle the appointment of positions within the town government. Ignorance, as opposed to stupidity, of the issue, without thinking and looking into details, which means such ignorance, with humility an open mind, would enable learning and wisdom. Critical thinking skills are very handy in such situations.
Category:
Commentary
Tagged with: