April, 2006

Editorial: Government cuts health care, hands billions to corporations

Most of us are familiar with the numbers: 45 million people with no health insurance, and every year the number seems to grow. And now we're told the government has cut Medicaid (federal-state health insurance for the poor), and proposes to cut Medicare (federal health insurance for the elderly and disabled).

The simple fact is, the government is steadily abandoning any responsibility for the people. In an age when technology and globalization are eliminating jobs, wages and benefits for millions around the globe, the cuts in government-financed health care represent a corporate government cutting off workers the corporations don't need.

Congress in February approved a law that alters Medicaid, the government health care program for the poor that is jointly financed by the state and federal governments. The net effect of the new law is cuts that will amount to nearly $5 billion over five years. According to the Congressional Budget Office, the law means millions of low-income people will have to pay more for health care, and some will do without care or drop out of Medicaid because of the higher copayments and premiums.

And the Bush administration, in its recently proposed federal budget, would also cut Medicare, the federal health care program for the elderly and disabled. The cuts would reduce Medicare spending by nearly $36 billion over the next five years, with hospitals taking the biggest hit.

But somebody is making money off this. At the same time the government proposes to cut Medicare, the new Medicare prescription drug benefit, which kicked in January 1, will funnel billions of dollars to pharmaceutical companies, and will put billions more in the pockets of some of the nation's largest companies by subsidizing drug costs for their retirees. General Motors, for example, is expected to receive $1.1 billion over the next four years in drug subsidies for its retired workers. In fact, as the New York Times reported, "America's largest companies expect the federal government to pay them about $4 billion over the next four years to help keep their retiree health plans alive at a time when such benefits are increasingly on the chopping block…"

It's no wonder these corporations want to shift their costs to the taxpayers. General Motors pays $1,500 in health care costs for each car it makes, while some of its competitors pay as little as $200.

It's not a pretty picture -- millions of people doing without health care, or suffering cuts in government-financed and employer-provided care, while billions of our tax dollars are handed over to the very corporations that are cutting our benefits (if we have jobs). Meanwhile, compare the cuts in benefits for workers to the billions more that are being handed to the arms industry, and the $1 billion a week being spent on the Iraq war.

Do we need more evidence that these corporations are destroying our lives, the future of our children, and our country? It's more clear than ever that either we, the people, take these corporations over and run them in our interest, or they will destroy us. We need a society that takes care of its members, and a government that accepts responsibility for the welfare of the people.