Sick and Wrong

How Washington is screwing up health care reform – and why it may take a revolt to fix it

MSM: Swine flu vaccine plan in disarray

(SydneyHerald) – The Federal Government’s plan to immunise the population against swine flu is in chaos because insurers may not cover doctors who administer the jab.

Insurers admit 50,000 employees lobbying Congress to claim profits fair

(RawStory) – A spokesman for America’s Health Insurance Plans, the industry’s trade group, admitted in an article published Monday that as many as 50,000 industry employees are involved in an effort to fight back against aggressive healthcare reform.

The Obstacles to Real Health Care Reform: Private Insurers and Big Pharma

In almost the same breath on August 17, the White House effectively dropped a real public option (that likely never existed) while Obama was telling the Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) that the Pentagon will escalate the Afghanistan/Pakistan war into a long-term conflict that will assure “more difficult days ahead.”

Whistleblower Tells of America’s Hidden Health Nightmare for its Sick Poor

(Truthout) – When an insurance firm boss saw a field hospital for the poor in Virginia, he knew he had to speak out. Here, he tells Paul Harris of his fears for Obama’s bid to bring about radical change.

MSM: Health insurers want you to keep smoking, Harvard doctors say

(ScientificAmerican) – Health and life insurance companies in the U.S. and abroad have nearly $4.5 billion invested in tobacco stocks, according to Harvard doctors.

MSM: From Bad to Worse

“As bad as you think it is, it’s worse… unemployed people can’t spur economic growth.” That was Diane Garnick of Invesco’s grim outlook yesterday for the U.S. economy through early 2009. And while those macro skies continue to darken, the market bear seems to drag a big, fresh, bloody institutional victim back to its cave every week or so. Banks, insurers, hedge funds, automakers – and now America’s premier institute of higher education, Harvard University, is bleeding (crimson) red.