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Friday, March 19, 2021

Is United Healthcare, headquartered in the Twin Cities metro area, the 800 pound gorilla in the room, indirectly shown to be there and really heavy, to where however rapacious, the politicians don't want to see Medicare for All eating its lunch?

DWT, here, lists cosponsors with Jayapal on her Medicare for All bill.

 Zippo support for the Bill among House Dems and Republicans in the Minnesota delegation. No guts, no glory.

WAIT - courage and good judgment must go with a hijab - Ilhen Omar cosponsors the item. One out of eight is not an impressive percentage, given the need to take private profiteering out of the equation.

Howie Klein of DWT writes:

More than half the Democrats in the House are co-sponsors of Pramila's Medicare for All Act that was just reintroduced for 2021, since Pelosi and Hoyer buried the 2020 version and never allowed it to come up for a vote, despite pledging to do just that. Pramila: "While this devastating pandemic is shining a bright light on our broken, for-profit health care system, we were already leaving nearly half of all adults under the age of 65 uninsured or underinsured before COVID-19 hit. And we were cruelly doing so while paying more per capita for health care than any other country in the world. There is a solution to this health crisis-- a popular one that guarantees health care to every person as a human right and finally puts people over profits and care over corporations. That solution is Medicare for All-- everyone in, nobody out-- and I am proud to introduce it today alongside a powerful movement across America."

[...] Biden remains unswayed and remains loyal, first and foremost, like all American conservatives, regardless of party, to private insurance companies and not to the American people. He keeps pushing barely noticeable incremental upgrades to Obamacare. His next goal is better, a public option, but a waste of time since it will take enormous political capital-- virtually the same amount as Medicare-for-All-- without half the benefits. "Biden," reported Politico this morning, "campaigned on the idea, touting it as an achievable reform that would bring down costs without upending private health insurance. It consistently polls well across the political spectrum.

Klein, by image, reminds us of Biden campaign allegations that he supports "Medicare by 60," although now, in office, it seems to have slipped his mind. What we do see so far, real questionable slippage, whatever it's cause. Spine slippage, now in office, or simply spinning along with his spin doctors in seeking an office with a pledge he never intended to honor. Not that it is super great as major reform, just that it was promised and seems now to have been put out with yesterday's trash.

Yes. Opinions can differ. Seven Minnesotans in Congress are one way or another in thrall? Or do you believe they occupy the high ground? Along with the millionaire executives of United Healthcare? A bondage of Benjamins, as Ms. Omar might have said - and did in a slightly different context. Bless her honesty.