Obama has promised healthcare reform. It seems likely that we actually will get reform. But, reform is a neutral word. The question is: What will the reform look like?
Over the past weekend I heard that none of the Congressional committees holding hearings on the subject had scheduled any witnesses who supported a single payer system. Why? If a committee has a proposal, the Congressional Budget Office runs the figures. Since the numbers for a single payer system would put any alternatives to shame, they would have a difficult job explaining any other choice.
So? The members of these committees have, for the most part, already been purchased by the for profit healthcare corporations. To find out how much the members cost you can search the web site of Open Secrets. You might find it instructive to search that site for your own members of Congress as well.
The above should be sufficient cause for concern but there is another consideration. When Obama selected Tom Daschle as Secretary of HHS he also proposed that dear Tom hold a new office in the West Wing: Health Reform Czar. When Tom went down the tubes, rightly so, Obama split the two positions. Kathleen Sebelius was nominated for HHS and Nancy-Ann DeParle was his pick for Czar.
Now Miss Nancy is quite accomplished. She has been a fellow at the Kennedy School at Harvard, holds a JD from that institution, attended Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar, was the first female president of the student body at the University of Tennessee, headed the Health Care Financing Administration, served at the Office of Management and Budget under President Clinton and served as commissioner of the Tennessee Department of Human Services.
Wow! What’s not to like? Well, in just 2007 she collected more than $550,000 for sitting on the boards of several for profit healthcare corporations.
As you can see from the chart, she also holds more than $3.1 million in stock in those companies. Five other for profit healthcare corporations she was associated with were acquired. Her buyout from those firms was over $4.1 million.
A fair amount of attention was paid to the background and position of Secretary Sebelius, as regards healthcare reform. Given the title of Czar and an office in the West Wing, it would appear that Mrs. DeParle might actually have a bigger role in the development of any reform.
By the way, her husband is a reporter for the New York Times. I’m guessing that is unlikely to be a significant factor vis-à-vis her new job.
{ 2 comments }
Looks like an egg sucker, to me!
Ed, you have such a way with words.
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