RACHEL MADDOW – DOW DOWN HEALTH INSURANCE STOCKS UP
Rachel Maddow pointed out on her MSNBC show last night that despite the Dow being down 180 points yesterday health insurer stocks went higher. Seems the Obama crew showed up on the Sunday news talk shows and admitted that the public option was not vital to their signing off on health care reform legislation. This would seem to mean that the 40 million uninsured people Obama is trying to get on the insurance rolls will somehow be mandated to sign up with a private health insurer like Blue Cross.
Forcing 40 million people to sign up with private insurers will be a boon for this industry and the investment community saw it and jumped all over it. The saying goes the market is always right. What the market is telling us is that Obama is cutting his losses on reform and will settle for getting as many of the currently uninsured covered on private insurance policies as possible. Reform as it applies to the rest of us will have to wait to some far off distance year when it will be too late to save average Americans from financial ruin and destitution.
The problem with this scenario is that it looks a lot like a welfare program. If it plays out this way everyone will be angry at Obama not just the angry screaming lot that have been shouting down the town hall meetings.
We can all look forward to that annual memo we receive about our insurance premiums going up another 10% along with the increase deductibles and co-payments. Many of us will be cutting back on doctors visits, medications, household staples, vacations, even food in order to pay for our insurance.
If the type of reform I’m talking about here passes this year, the number one problem the country will then be faced with is the need for health insurance reform. Obama will be ruined and discredited. The country will be leaderless and the issues that divide us will intensify. The great promise of the Obama presidency will become a farce, and the right wing will rise to rule again.
