After watching CNBC and Fox News the last few weeks, you’d think that the world of health care was crashing down with the talk of President Obama’s pursuit of a health care system that brings down both costs and premiums for all Americans.  We are being fed distortions by CNBC and Fox News that make you believe that universal health care-in this case, competition for health insurance companies-is a terrible thing.  In the face of polling that demonstrates that 72% of Americans want universal health care-the major media giants CNBC, Fox News, numerous Senators and members of Congress have brazenly stepped up their rhetoric designed to put a major scare into it’s audiance that is riddled with half-truths, lies and deception.

What I ask of you is to use simple common sense.

Look at the state of the economy.  Did CNBC ever tell you to get your 401K plan out of the markets and into cash before the Great Crash of 2008-2009?  No, in fact, all the way down the pundits on CNBC were telling you to “buy, buy, buy” instead of getting out.  Sure, CNBC put up a guest or two who warned of a bad market, but that guest was always offset by four or five stock market pumpers who told you to “buy now-it’s never been better”.  Psychologically, anyone actually believing CNBC was doomed, outnumbered by Stock Market Pumpers who fleeced you of your life savings.  The same exact scenario played itself out on Fox News.

The CNBC’s and Fox News channels of the world were dead wrong about markets-from real estate to stock.  The end result, if you listened to these wolves, landed you under water in your mortgage and no retirement.  If you followed Fox News and CNBC over the last decade, if you acted on their collective advices over time, you are insolvent and most likely contemplating bankruptcy. Why, on God’s Green Earth, would you listen to these wolves now-when they hysterically distort with lies and deception the President’s health care proposals?

CNBC and Fox News serve the interests of Wall Street and Corporate America.  It is in the best interest of Corporate America to keep the American middle class financially strapped. If the American middle class is forever strapped, we will always be working two and three jobs per household. This endless work ethic leaves us too fatigued, at the end of the day, to question the effects of Corporate America’s influence over public policy. Accordingly, CNBC and Fox News fall in line and follow suit.  As for the members of Congress and Senators that parade on these networks who continue to deny what 72% of Americans now demand universal health care, they are nothing more than paid off mouthpieces for the health insurance and hospital industry.

Last week, Wendell Potter, a former executive of Cigna, one of the nation’s largest health insurance companies, testified before the Congress of the United States that Michael Moore’s movie, “Sicko”, which depicts our sham of a health care system for what it is-was exactly correct.  We don’t have the “best health care in the world”.  In fact, the best health care in the world is located in countries that have embraced universal health care.  Mr. Potter goes on to tell Congress that CIGNA intentionally ran a media blitz public relations campaign distorting the truth of government run health care.  Mr. Potter’s interview with Bill Moyer of PBS is below. I urge you to watch this video, as it is very informative and sheds a real truth on the health care debate. Fascinating.

Members of Congress and the Senate do not pay for health care!  Do you really think those politicians really care about our health care costs?  No, plain and simple, they don’t.  These politicians have brazenly laughed in the face of the 72% of Americans by fluffing off the polling as “Americans don’t know what they want”.

Every single politician that gets on these networks have been bribed by the health insurance  and hospital industrial complex to keep costs so high that the American middle class will never retire.  Please remember this the next time one of these horrible excuses of human existence gets on these networks and distorts the truth about health care costs.

One thing’s for sure: if we took away the health insurance benefits from these paid off politicians from Congress and the Senate you could bet the ranch that each one of them would be screaming to high heaven about how every American citizens who pays for health insurance is the victim of greed and hubris by the health insurance and hospital industrial complex.  That’s really the answer-take away the lifetime health insurance benefits given to members of the United States Senate and members of Congress.  Only then will we see a real change.

AS A SMALL BUSINESS OWNER IN AMERICA:

Don’t let the media scare you.  The crushing costs and poor quality of health care in America continues to bankrupt the citizens of this great country.  Yesterday I received the health insurance renewal package for my small business, and the premiums have once again been jacked up another 20 to 25%.

My small business pays 24,000. per month for health insurance coverage.  Premiums range from $1,000 to $1,600 per month for family coverage and $ 300 to 500 per month for single individual plans.  Now the health insurance company wants 20% more for most likely, less coverage.  (Each year the “plan design” changes whereby the actual benefits of coverage of the plan are reduced).

Let’s do the math:

This year’s plan, $ 24,000. per month, at 12 months, is $ 298,000. per year.  That’s just this year.  Next year the costs will be almost $ 29000. per month, for less coverage.  Over the course of the year, my business will have paid another  $ 348,000. for health insurance (less) coverage.

Each and every year I have to do this dance with the health insurance companies that always end the same.  I am forced to review the “plan design” and seek a lower cost plan with much less benefits.  This year will be no different.  I will most likely switch “plan designs”, pay higher deductibles, just to keep the premium the same.  Either way the health insurance company gets their money-either through higher premiums or less payments for health care.  …and the beat goes on…with health insurance company executives buying more yachts on the backs of businesses like mine.  Since 2002, my company has paid over 2 million dollars -let me say it again- 2 MILLION DOLLARS FOR HEALTH INSURANCE PREMIUMS FROM MY SMALL BUSINESS ALONE-with almost 60% of the premiums going into the pockets of the health insurance companies after paid claims (good luck getting the health insurance company to pay a claim).

Since the staff contributes to their health insurance costs, each employee will have to make the hard choices along with me: pay more for less health care at a time when every dollar earned is critical in keeping the collective staff’s financial heads above water.  Over the past seven years, due to the rising costs of premiums, many employees have simply dropped their coverage and are now uninsured.  The only way to keep health insurance premiums level has been the cumulative effects of less employees participating in the plan, while those participating (including myself) are forced to cut benefits to maintain benefits.

In 2002, we had a choice of seven health insurance carriers. Each carrier gave you a choice of monthly premiums and benefits that ranged greatly.  We had a choice of coverage.   Since 2002, health insurance companies have bought each other out and have created a monopoly in the NY region of the United States. HIP plans of NY buys up Vytra Health, and GHI then buys up HIP, creating a monster company and a virtual lock on health insurance coverage in a region of millions of people.  What does this mean?  It means, in a market that was supposed to be “free”, we have a market of only a few health insurance companies that have resulted in much higher costs and little competition.  Health insurance premiums are now fixed at higher and higher rates, and by buying out their competition, literally nothing stands in the way of the health insurance companies from destroying what is left of America’s middle class.  What are the choices for my small business today?  I get to choose from the giants of GHI, Blue Cross & Blue Shield, Oxford Health and Aetna.  Aetna has been far and away out of control with their premiums, so that leaves the other three, whose premiums and “plan designs” are almost identical.  The bottom line in all this is that my company and the rest of small business in this country are held financial hostage by the health insurance monopoly that generates billions in annual profits while simultaneously bankrupting the American middle class.

THE BOTTOM LINE.

The argument that taxes will rise to pay for the President’s health care plan is bogus and deceptive-intentionally.  Conveniently, the bribed politicians and mouthpieces at CNBC as well as Fox News forget to tell you that YOUR HEALTH INSURANCE PREMIUMS WILL GO DOWN DRASTICALLY.  If a business such as mine, where my employees and myself pay nearly $300,000 per year in health insurance premiums will pay half in premium and a 1% surcharge in taxes, the net cost to my employees & myself will be $150,000 per year plus a $50,000, income tax surcharge, or $200,000. per year, compared to the $300,000 per year we presently pay the thieves known as health insurance companies.

The argument that creating a public health insurance choice will be bad for the economy is another laughable notion. One of the single largest costs facing business today is health insurance. Since American business must bear the cost of health insurance, such costs are factored into the cost of producing goods. Since most other industrialized nations that we trade with have universal health coverage, such a cost is not born on foreign competitors. Therefore, America is losing jobs to overseas companies who can produce goods without the cost of health insurance. If we implement a public choice of health insurance, American companies can be more competitive both in the United States and abroad, where our exports will increase as our cost to produce exports decrease. To sum it up, a universal health care system, or public option for health insurance would actually stimulate the economy by creating more jobs here in America as a result of an increase in our domestic and overseas manufacturing demand.

Another absurd argument being discussed in the media is that the health insurance industry will be put out of business, thus bad for capitalism.  Well, if health insurance companies would lower their premiums, they wouldn’t have to worry about going out of business.  The President’s plan actually attempts to bring back price competition to the industry-something that the health insurance industry worked so hard at eliminating.

The media distortions go on and on.  All I ask is for you to remember that the Senators and members of Congress that rail against the plan a) don’t have to pay for health insurance-for the rest of their lives, and B) these politicians have been bribed, or bought off by the health insurance and hospital industry complex via huge campaign donations.

The truth is all Americans will save significant amounts of dollars, even after considering the tax effects of the President’s plan.  Don’t let the bogus talking heads on television who pretend to be economists, pundits, politicians & university professors fool you.  Each and every one of these folks were wrong about the real estate market, completely failed to warn you of the demise of the stock market in 2008, and are consistently wrong about the President’s health care proposal as well.  Your taxes will not go up nearly as high as the health insurance premiums you will be saving.  You will also have the peace of mind that should you come down with the common cold, you won’t go bankrupt when you see the doctor.