Don't Pin Your Hopes on the Democrats For Healthcare

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Richard Mellor

Afscme Local 444, retired

In a civilized and genuinely democratic socialist society, there would be a debate about how society provides health care to millions of people. This is a healthy democratic process, only natural given the sheer numbers involved. We have the resources, we have the money, we have the human resources to implement such a program and so on. There would be back and forth and the sharing of ideas and views all with the same goal.

Not so in a capitalist society where health care is a business, where the main aim of the sickness industrial complex is profits.

In the wake of the Predator in Chief Donald Trump, Democrats are promising the world and are offering ideas on how to fix what is the most expensive and inefficient health care system of all the advanced capitalist economies.  But as Bloomberg BusinessWeek points out in its last issue, when it comes to health care, as far as the Democrats health proposals are concerned, “Even their most moderate proposals aren’t likely to get past a hostile industry.”

One might wonder how they can make such a claim given that in a recent poll, 41% of Americans prefer a Medicare for All plan with 71% supporting a choice of a private insurance plan and a government one, the “Public Option”. Joe Biden is resurrecting the public option after Obama dropped it and Warren and Sanders are arguing for a Medicare for All plan. 

That there is so much support for improving the dysfunctional health care system in the US, some might wonder why the 41% figure is as low as it is. But it is a confirmation of the dire state of healthcare in the US that we have 41% of the population supporting what amounts to replacing private insurance with a national health system given the massive propaganda and fear mongering against such an idea.  The propaganda against making public a social need like health care, is phenomenal. The Medical Industrial Complex in the US has swelled corporate coffers to the tune of billions of dollars along with the bank accounts of the health industry and pharmaceutical company executives as well as many others associated with the capital management, business.

Industry lobbying groups like, The Partnership for America’s Health Care Future that represents insurance companies, drugmakers, hospitals, and other industry players according to Business Week, has already spent lots of cash with an ad campaign spreading fear and terror, one might call it “shock and Awe” telling people that the end of the world as they know it will be upon them if health care is socialized.

No matter what options are being floated they all lead to higher taxes, higher premiums and poor quality care the messages. Hospitals will be closed, doctors hard to find and so on. This is the message we will hear day in day out from the mass media owned and controlled by the same unelected group of people who sit on the boards of hospitals, pharmaceutical companies and so on. They are all connected. I urge the reader to go read a bit of labor history in the genesis of the organized labor movement and the struggle for the 8-hour workday. You can read headlines in the capitalist press of the day how universal idleness will be the result and the country will be ruined, the economy collapse communists will kill us all. The propaganda against anything market driven, any influence of working folk in the running of society is immense, strengthened by the pathetic and cowardly role played by the heads of organized labor nationally, and we still get 41% basically supporting abolishing the insurance companies dictatorial rule over whether we get health care or not.

Look at how the serious journals of capitalism use language. One reason the Democrats will be blocked from introducing these electioneering promises is “The lobbyists may not have a vote in Congress, but they have demonstrable influence over the legislative process.”

What this means, “demonstrable” ,(demonstrable = provable, apparent, obvious) is that their influence over the legislative process has been proven over time. But how can that be as they don’t have a vote? But they do have a vote. These industries have organizations and billions of dollars, they are capitalist associations don’t forget, that come together to represent the economic and political interests of this class of people.

And more importantly they have two political parties that they fund and whose individual legislators they bribe.

In the political debates we only hear the point of view of capitalist economists and capitalist politicians. Big business representatives if you prefer this term. The corporations have two parties and those of us whose existence is maintained through wage labor of many types have no party at all. We have no voice in the US body politic.

Is it written in the religious tracts of the Judeo Christian world that taxes will go up if we all have medical care that actually fixes us when we need it? Is it written in hese tracts that it is impossible to have health care with a small group of people reaping billions and making profit from such a basic social need?  Of course not.

The philosopher Karl Marx explained that the dominant ideas in society are the ideas of the class that governs that society. As I have stated many,  times before, the “Divine Right of Kings” did not spring from the head of the feudal peasant or serf any more than the philosophy that people with white skin are more intelligent that those with dark skin was thought up by a black man or woman. These ideas are taught, are introduced in to society, they are class based and have a purpose, that is the maintenance of social control and power by the class that rules.

Source: Forbes

They will spend billions using the media they own lying to the population that we cannot have a socially run, not for profit health care system or any social service for that matter. Then they will reward the politicians in their two parties for ensuring such a ridiculous idea that will harm the population (in reality them) is blocked legislatively.  The reality is that it will end their gravy train getting rich off their sickness industrial complex. Instead of billions going to insurance companies and other capital related ventures, we can spend it on actually caring for the sick. Medical For All would hit the profits of big Pharma while making health care accessible and according to estimates, slash provider payments by as much as 40% this is the problem. That they can spend billions spreading lies also raises the issue of the mass media and why it has to be taken out of private hands.

No matter what they say, the Democrats promising these things cannot win them in a body politic where the corporations own both parties. We will not come near winning them until we have a party of our own, independent of Wall Street, big money and big business. I do not want to stray too far here, but the DSA (Democratic Socialist of America) is making a disastrous mistake supporting Sanders and we should remember that Eugene Debs, that great American socialist that DSA likes to hold up as an exemplary example of American socialism, did not support capitalist parties. DSA has the resources and numbers to open up new front for labor and working class people.

Perhaps the most important issue ahead is the economy. Manufacturers are not re-investing capital in their factories. Manufacturing output is down 1.6% since December and capacity utilization at US factories in July was the lowest in two years.

The Trump war with China is exacerbating this as is his many other insane activities. Capitalism need a certain amount of stability in order to make profits. And as Marx again pointed out, debt can allow capitalism to go beyond its limits, allow it to stay the course a little while longer before profit comes to a halt and the system seizes up. But at some point that debt spigot is cut off, has to be called in. Factories are shut, workers laid off, value destroyed.

Amid all this it is important we see the big picture, recognize that the Democrats cannot resolve the problems we face.