The
big Social Security crisis the Bush administration is keeping in the headlines
is serving as a big distraction. The real crisis resides with
Medicare/Medicaid. Yet the administration hardly ever mentions this fact. We
wonder why. Given the mendacity of Bush and the mentality of his top advisors,
it should not be hard to figure out.
Recent
statements by the Republican Social Security Commissioners (the Democratic
commissioners were not invited to the news conference) emphasized the coming
Social Security “crisis” in 2042. They neglected to mention the exhaustion of
the Medicare trust fund in 2017 due to the spiraling cost of US health care.
The
reasons are obvious: Fixing Medicare/Medicaid will not provide money-making
opportunities for Wall Street. Fixing Medicare/Medicaid will work against the
interests of the drug companies, insurance companies, HMOs, and other
health-care providers, all of which are heavy contributors to the Bush
administration and supporters in Congress. Now more than ever, US health care
is a profit-driven enterprise, and putting any restrictions on health-care
inflation will hurt the bottom line. Therefore, this crisis is left unattended.
The business
approach to health care is fixed in the neocon mindset. And it’s a philosophy completely
at odds with the rest of the developed world. Virtually every other developed
country has universal health-care coverage, either government run or paid for.
America is also set apart by the fact that 45 million people here are lacking
any form of coverage.
The
neocon philosophy calls for everything to be taken care of by the private
marketplace, which, as the theory goes, is the most efficient system ever
devised by the mind of man. In most economic activities, this theory has some
credence. In health care, the evidence points in the opposite direction.
The
US spends 78 percent more on health care as a proportion of GDP than the
average of all the other nations in the G-8. It costs doublefor the average American to receive
health care compared to people in other G-8 nations, which would begin to make
sense if the health care we receive is twice as good. Well, sadly,
public-health statistics prove that the US is no better — and in many cases
much worse — than other G-8 countries.
In
longevity, cure rates for serious diseases, disability rates, and any number of
other indicators, the US is no better than the middle of the pack. In infant
mortality, the US is dead last. Even Cuba and China, not G-8 countries, have
better statistics on infant mortality. And the US statistics are getting worse
with time, as more mothers are without health insurance and lacking prenatal
care.
If
the US had just the average infant mortality rate of the other G-8 countries,
11,000 babies per year would be saved. Where is the Christian Right on this
issue?
These
problems will only get worse. Draconian cuts in Medicaid are being passed on to
the states, which will inevitably hinder our public-health performance. In the
last two years, the increase in Medicare payments by retirees has risen 34
percent. So it’s obvious the administration wants retirees to pay for
health-care inflation.
Last
year, the Bush administration and Congress had a great opportunity to make
progress on the issue of escalating drug costs. They failed miserably when the
new prescription drug bill was passed. The bill specifically bars the
government from using its vast negotiating power to lower drug prices and it
blocks drug importation from Canada. The glee from the pharmaceutical industry
could hardly be contained.
The apologists for a
laissez-faire approach to health care claim high profits in the industry are
needed to provide for technological advances and new drugs. But that argument
falls flat when the unseemly relationship between the industry and the current
administration is there for all to see.
The
pharmaceutical industry spends more on advertising than research, putting into
question the theory that high profits are needed for research. The US is the
only developed country that allows consumer advertising for prescription drugs,
a domain that should be left to doctors. And the recent FDA scandals — where
drugs were approved before a thorough review — are an additional indicator of
how regulators and the regulated are in lockstep, protecting the bottom line.
How
can this sham that passes for political leadership be in bed with an industry
charged with the health of the nation? When will the congressional junkets,
campaign contributions, political action committees, and assorted payoffs be
reigned in? As long as this gravy train keeps moving, the costs of Medicare and
Medicaid will keep moving up to be paid for by ordinary Americans.
There
is only one way to end this scandal: Vote the people responsible for it out of
office. With the entrenched positions and pervasive influence of money in the
political process, it will be difficult. But this is the real crisis.
Last week I
detailed some of the lies and falsehoods being perpetrated to justify Social Security
privatization (“Social Security: lies, lies, and damn lies,” April 6-12). One
of those lies was that the Social Security trust fund is an “illusion.” Since
that was written, President Bush, in what must be considered one of the most
reckless and irresponsible acts ever by an American president, decided to have
a photo-op.
With
great showmanship he posed in front of the vault containing the US government
bonds of the Social Security trust fund and declared that they were “not real
assets” and just worthless IOUs. This will certainly be news to the foreign
governments, mutual funds, insurance companies, banks, and millions of US
citizens who own them and who all believed this was the world’s safest
investment. Of course, sophisticated people know this was just a publicity
stunt by Bush. But the Big Lie Technique is aimed at the uniformed and
gullible.
This article appears in Apr 13-19, 2005.
