Is CNN Pro Private Healthcare?

[pfezziwig]

I just saw CNN's Dr Gupta debate Micheal Moore over his harsh criticism of his movie 'Sicko'.

Dr Gupta's piece was the most biased piece of journalism I'ld ever seen. I would expect to see something like that from and iran or chinese stae government production, certainly not CNN.

I can't help but believe CNN has a strong pro private healthcare agenda and has little independent objectivity in producing anything to the contrary.

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P.Fezziwig

[debaser23]

No, I cannot explain how I'd go out about providing universal coverage  with private insurers.  Because I'd take THEM out of the loop.  

What's a private hospital now would remain a private hospital.  A doctor could have his own practice without being an employee of the government.  When you say "nationalized health care", you're talking about every aspect of the system being part of the government.  That's neither necessary nor desirable in my opinion.

I, too, am tired of for-profit health insurance.  These companies may still provide some sort of administrative role, but the policies should be underwritten by our government.

[barn babe]

Can you explain how you would go about providing "universal" coverage under the auspices of private insurers?  It sounds like you are saying that there should be a mandate for coverage. In other words, the onus still falls on the consumer to get coverage, or else...what?  They are in violation of the law? Arnold wants to attempt that kind of b.s. plan here in California. He wants to make it mandatory that everybody have insurance - but still keep private insurers with the control!  It makes absolutely no sense to me. He also vetoed a bill that passed both Houses here for universal health coverage for every Californian, provided by the State government. He vetoed it at the end of 2006 and then had the gall to call 2007 the "year of health care" in California.

Private insurance doesn't work. It has not been proven to work in the 30+ years it's been around. Don't you think it's time to try something different? No matter which study you read, universal health coverage provided by the government is more economical and provides better quality of care across the board.

The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different outcome. I think it's safe to say that we've "done" private health insurance to the nth degree - and it ain't working. Let's try something else. And let's do it before even more people lose their lives or their life savings in the process.

[debaser23]

The only broadcast media I take in for news is public: NPR and PBS.  If you watch CNN and the others, you can easily see who their advertisers are!  It's true that NPR and PBS have corporate underwriters, but it sure doesn't seem to affect their content (with one notable exception that I'll not bring up here).

I do NOT think we should nationalize the healthcare industry.  I'd like to see it remain private.  But I would like to see universal coverage, and I really do think we'll see it within my lifetime.  Unfortunately, our government works very slowly.  It was designed to work that way, and a party system has developed that has only made progress slower on issues such as this.  I think the need for universal health care is so immediate that the issue will eventually overcome partisanship and we'll see some sort of system phased in relatively soon.  Let's just hope they do it well.

[barn babe]

Actually, both Iran and China have nationalized health care. So you wouldn't even see this "propaganda" in these places.

[barn babe]

Does that surprise you? The entire country and the media are pro-privatization. They will do anything to prevent Americans from having nationalized health care - they will demonize it, say it isn't "effective," tell us it's "too expensive," and call people who support it "socialists."  

Have you seen SiCKO? Moore goes into the reasons why we don't have it  here. Our politicians are in bed with insurance companies, we use propaganda to scare people into thinking that nationalized health insurance will kill us all because of the "wait times," or the "inability" to get care, ad nauseam.  It's sickening, actually.  

And while all of this debate is going on, people are dying because of privatized health care. It sickens me, actually.  I've been a supporter of nationalized health care my entire adult life - I lived in Europe for many years in my 20s and got a taste of it there.

There's nothing "progressive" about CNN. Forget about that. They are as conservative and pro-Bush as the rest of the mainstream media.

What is truly sad is that we must have this debate at all. Americans should be hitting the streets in protest that our government doesn't provide what is, essentially, a human right - health care for everybody.