Am I Missing Something? Why aren’t most corporations pushing for health care reform?
by: Craig Wiesner on February 24th, 2010 | 12 Comments »
The top story at Huffington Post at this moment, is that Harry Reid walked out of a meeting with corporate titans in a huff, because he thought they were telling him to focus on them instead of on small businesses. One line in that story, however, was the big news for me. “At one point, Democrats in the room reached out to the corporate heads for help finishing health care reform and were met with silence.”
This is something I just don’t understand! The United States spends twice as much on health care than any other industrialized nation. If we fixed our health care system we could save literally trillions of dollars. Corporations could save billions every year on premiums. Why aren’t corporations working to make health care reform happen? This is something my husband and I have talked about a lot. We know that for our small business, our biggest monthly fixed cost is health insurance premiums. We’re convinced that good health care reform could save us some money and also help relieve the stress of worrying about losing access to health care. A little more money in our pockets, a little less stress, and perhaps we would spend more on other parts of our business, which could help other businesses, and the wheel goes round and round.
Small businesses don’t need convincing that health care reform is critical to our economy recovering and all of our futures. Why doesn’t big business see it?
This is truly a blog post where I’m curious to know what readers think the answer(s) might be. Why did these corporate titans clam up when the Democrats asked them to help get health care reform through Congress?
It’s pretty evident why the titans of big business clammed up – they were being asked to tear into one of their own. Big Insurance. How about the the premium increases hat are now happening? The Bigs are running the show and they look out for each other.
What would happen if congress was required to have the same medical insurance/coverage that they decide the rest of us should have instead of the wonderful ‘socialized’ medical program they do have?
It is puzzling indeed. But the fact is, they cover for each other. For example, last summer I saw a daytime piece on MSNBC about what to feed your family while on the road… the diet specialist from USA Today was the interviewee; and she presented what had been decided to be the healthiest items from the breakfast, lunch, and dinner menus from Kentucky Fried Chicken, McDonald’s, Burger King, Taco Bell, and Wendy’s. That’s it, those were the selections. In this case I suppose bakshish for advertising – they are all entwined on many levels.
I think that corporations prefer insurance to be tied to an individual job rather than following an individual from job to job. Lots of people put up with jobs they don’t want to put up with because if they changed jobs they might have a lapse in coverage and have to wait a year for pre-existing conditions to be covered. It’s easier for corporations to exploit their labor force if it depends on the corporations for its very health and well-being.
It’s pretty simple. Same reason they were telling him to focus on them instead of on small businesses. “More for somebody else means less for me and that’s all that matters.”
Capitalism and democracy are at cross purposes. Capitalists don’t do anything that doesn’t benefit shareholders. A zebra is a zebra because of its stripes. Capitalists are capitalists because they answer to shareholders…not to a senator asking for some help with health care.
The problem is this: do we expect health care to be considered part of the common good and out of the mainstream market? Can we consider it a commodity to be bartered and traded? Medicine has been business for a while now. Wall Street has influenced how the business is run. The medicine business is very profitable. We all pay into the coffers. Why upset that applecart? Corporations all serve the Wall Street masters. These masters use insurance company money to invest and make more money. You wouldn’t want to piss these people off. Wall Street investors can make or break a company. Word on the street is no idle gossip.
We are at the crossroads in our history. Government is losing it’s ability to affect change because they serve two masters: the people and wall street. Wall street is winning. The fact that Harry Reid even had to ask corporations to “help out” is testament to how little government we really have left.
Thank you for an intelligent, informed response. Sadly, most Americans are unable–or unwilling to look the dragon in the face.The vital issue is as you note, the capitalist economic system, as it has developed, has become totally alien to the concept of democracy. I suggest that until even enlightened liberals face this existential conflict there can be no correction/change in this corrupt condition. The solution may, unfortunately,come with a catastrophe of the magnitude of a 10 in all systems.
I see good sense in all the posts responding to this very open and honest inquiry. My contribution is to invoke the sociological tradition of C. Wright Mills and his classic analysis, “The Power Elite,” especially as that book’s insights have been carried forward by G. William Domhoff in a series of books since the 1970s. This analysis of the social interconnections of the holders of top positions in corporations, the military, and the unelected executive branch in America connects, I think, the variables suggested by my fellow posters–Wall Street, common interests of corporate “titans,” capitalists and shareholders, etc. This analysis also places Harry Reid in context, in the second tier of power where legislators do their work and must to taken into account by the power elite, but where the real planning and decision-making power does NOT reside.
Indeed,
Some of us who were fortunate enough to study the history and ways of the world we inhabit understand how and why these conditions prevail. The organizations that control educational systems deny the majority of young people this information.
Generally, those of us who are already “committed” see Michael Moore films, for the majority of contemporary media is focused, as Erich Fromm indicated, on the private and sex lives of celebrities. The same economic ideology that has produced the insurance./banking.investment debacle, owns the film, TV, and dying newspaper sections of our lives. With clutches, already into the Internet.
Viewing “fear and greed” as the base is a start. I do not think the current economic fears will allow clear thinking. The human condition may be evolving–but is it fast enough to be of value?
That’s a good question about why large corporations would not be strongly backing a cheaper health care system. They go for “cheap”, as in cost cutting, in just about everything else. Could it be that they would have to insure more people under a new system? Are they getting breaks that a small business can’t get? Is it easier just to lay off workers than to change health coverage when looking for ways to cut costs? Can we ask a coporation to answer the question? Why aren’t they 100% behind a cheaper system?
Perhaps clarity would come from knowing which corporations were in that room in the first place. If it was all Big Insurance, the meaning for the silence is clear. If it were just Big Biz giants, well, it’s like Harold says, owning class peers are fiercely loyal to their own. Period.
To me the bigger problem is in the fact the corps were even there to begin with. We need, and the majority of the US populace support, universal single payer. That we’re getting anything else speaks to the mockery of democracy on the most fundamental level. The owning class is squarely the problem here. The extreme minority of class allies within that particular group is what complicates, blurs and confuses the Left on this core reality.
The whole health care reform hoohah amongst the owning class and their ruling elites is just utterly immoral and utterly despicable. Not one person on the inside of the deal making is acting in good faith let alone with any sense of honor or integrity. That particular class of human beings needs an overhaul and a new bottom line.
I do not believe that Harry Reid or any politician is from the “angelic state” of “for and by the people” so it could be that Big Biz was responding to some issue or “strategy” that we’re not aware of. I also often wonder how much of what is “reported” or “filmed” is staged. That said, the current atmosphere of extreme fear leads to every entity clinging to protectionism. Corporations are not different.
Corporations are now being challenged, not just by the “second tier of power” but by every day Americans. Corporations do not have a soul, so they must be pressured to do the right thing. In my opinion, one of the most effective strategies is to boycott Big Biz and their products. I’ve seen nothing affect change, as much as that simple action. So how do Progressives initiate and sustain that movement?
Taking the question from Tish Harris, (‘So how do Progressives initiate and sustain..[change]‘ needs to be a priority. Informing Americans of the issues/practices/beliefs of corporations simply and effectively would be an enormous task. Everything from mailings to a Michael Moore-type film would be helpful. Anything on TV would probably be better. Of utmost importance would be the constant answer to the question, “What can I do to help [that is easy and will be part of my lifestyle]?” Part and parcel of this is the pervading sense of fear and greed. But I haven’t a clue as to how to address those problems.