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Tuesday, May 14th, 2019

Lobbyists Are Working Overtime to Quash Medicare-for-All

Author:     Jake Johnson
Source:     truthdig/Common Dreams
Publication Date:     MAY 12, 2019
 Link: Lobbyists Are Working Overtime to Quash Medicare-for-All
Stephan:   It is in the interest of the country as a whole, as well as each individual in that country to have universal healthcare. Why? Because it makes for a healthier more productive society, and because it is much much cheaper. When someone tells you we can't afford to implement universal healthcare you can be sure they are either willfully ignorant or just outright lying. No other nation in the world pays anywhere close to what healthcare costs the people of the United States. And all the money produces what? Amongst the worse healthcare in the developed work, we rank 37th to be exact. But boy oh boy is American healthcare profitable for those who own it, which is why I think it should be called an illness profit system, not a healthcare system. An election is coming up so we can be sure that healthcare is going to be an issue. And just as surely as the sun sets in the West, you can be sure the liars and profiteers will be out in force to protect their money machines. This story is an example confirming the truth of what I have just said, QED.

Medicare-for-all supporters take to the streets of Los Angeles
Credit: Molly Adams / Flickr

As nurses, doctors, and ordinary Americans ramped up their nationwide effort to build support for Medicare for All at the grassroots level and in Congress, staffers for some of America’s top Democratic lawmakers reportedly attended a “luxury” retreat hosted by corporate lobbyists working to undermine the growing push for single-payer.

According to The Intercept‘s Lee Fang, who first reported on the swanky gathering on Saturday, “around four dozen senior congressional staffers decamped for a weekend of relaxation and discussion at Salamander Resort & Spa” on April 5-7 in Middleburg, Virginia.

Hosted by the group Center Forward—whose board, Fang noted, “is made up almost entirely of registered corporate lobbyists”—the retreat was attended by the chiefs of staff for House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) and House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn (D-S.C.), as well as many other staffers for centrist Democrats and Republicans.

Wendell Potter, an insurance industry executive-turned-whistleblower, told The Intercept that any “congressional staffer serious about finding solutions wouldn’t touch that retreat with a 10-foot pole.”

The gathering, Fang […]

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