The Anaconda of Private- For Profit Health care
By Peter Ewart
Thursday, September 24, 2009 03:45 AM
by Peter Ewart
The anaconda kills by first wrapping itself around the prey and then bit by bit constricting its coils until the prey suffocates. In the South American jungle, the snake begins life feeding on birds and other small animals. By ingesting these, it gradually grows larger, the size of the prey increasing as it does. Eventually, it can reach the colossal size of 9 metres in length and up to 250 kilograms in weight, and take on large animals like deer and tapirs, and even humans.
So goes the privatization of health care in various countries around the world. The large health and health insurance companies, many of which are now multinationals, have been expanding rapidly into areas which were formerly the domain of public health care. Nowhere is this more sad and tragic than in the U.S., as can be seen in the character of the current debate over healthcare reform in that country.
When the private for-profit health care industry expands, it, like the anaconda, grows more powerful, not just economically but also politically. It has huge influence now in the U.S., coiling itself around both parties in Congress, stuffing the pockets of many members of the Senate and House of Representatives with millions of dollars in campaign and other types of “contributions.” The extent that the political process has become corrupted is – there is no other word for it - appalling.
For example, senator Max Baucus, who is the chair of the Senate Finance Committee and is putting forward the new health reform bill, received more contributions from the private health care industry – an estimated $3.4 million over the last 6 years alone - than any other member in the U.S. Senate.
Not surprisingly, discussion about genuine public health care has been by and large suffocated, with the health industry monopolies using their influence in government and media to keep public health care “off the table,” so that even mildly progressive reforms are not considered. This tragedy has happened despite the fact that, under the mainly private health system currently in place, the U.S. has one of the most expensive systems in the world, yet with tens of millions of people uninsured or denied coverage even when they have had insurance.
The U.S. is an extreme example of what happens when private health care companies become so powerful that public health care cannot expand, and, in fact, is strangled in the crib, despite a dire need for it in the society. That is the dilemma in the U.S. and it is a cautionary tale for other countries.
And those other countries include Canada. In the last several decades, the private for-profit healthcare industry has made major inroads into the realm of public health. For example, a number of hospitals in BC are being built as P3s (Public / Private Partnerships), with foreign based multinationals getting major contracts to operate hospitals in Vancouver, Abbotsford, and other cities, as well as to provide in-hospital services of various kinds. There has also been a proliferation of private for-profit clinics, a number of which are part of multinational chains.
In this expansion, the private, for-profit health industry has been aided and abetted by politicians of various stripes at both the federal and provincial level, who, conscious of the strong support for public health care amongst the populace, operate by stealth, assuring the public that they stand for public health care, while steadily undermining it.
If things keep going this way, we, like the Americans, will one day find out that the private for-profit health monopolies have grown to such a size that our public health care system is suffocated or has been reduced to only a shell, “public” in name, “private” in reality.
Once the “reformed” American model is put in place in Congress - with the full support of the health industry monopolies - watch to see that “model” promoted in Canada by these same monopolies which have also established themselves here.
One of the features of the proposed U.S. legislation - which the health insurance companies love – is that heavy fines (as much as $3800 per family) will be imposed by the U.S. government on the majority of citizens (low income will be excepted) unless they sign up with and pay fees to the insurance companies. Thus, these giant companies will be getting an additional 30 million captive “customers,” who are currently uninsured, along with the millions who are already insured (the so-called trade-off is supposed to be that insurance companies will no longer be able to rule people ineligible for coverage). And this is called “universal” health care.
Many people in Canada and other countries are aghast at what is happening in the U.S. and the misconceptions and tremendous confusion that have been generated there about public health care. But we need to be concerned here in Canada also.
In that regard, a resolution, which has been co-authored by the city councils of Victoria and New Westminster, is being put forward at the Union of BC Municipalities Annual Convention that starts on September 28th. The resolution call for the provincial government to act immediately to stop “the expansion of private, for-profit medical clinics in B.C.”
Do we need the further expansion of private for-profit health care into the province? Do we need more anacondas? Let your local municipal councilors know your views on this important issue.
Peter Ewart is a columnist and writer based in Prince George, BC. He can be reached at: peter.ewart@shaw.ca
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Posted by: gamblor on September 24 2009 8:00 AM