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CNN: Single-Payer Is So '90s
Medical reporter warns against 'government-run health system'
NEW YORK - March 12 - In one of the few recent corporate media mentions of single-payer healthcare, CNN senior medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen (3/5/09) explained why healthcare "reform" is more possible now than it was under President Bill Clinton:
Cohen's suggestion that it was those loud voices that stymied "reform" is likewise unsupportable; as Extra! reported back in 1993, corporate media were then solidly behind the Clinton administration's big insurer-friendly "managed competition" plan:
Earlier (CNN Newsroom, 2/26/09), Cohen had argued that "if in time, Americans start to think what President Obama is proposing is some kind of government-run health system--a la Canada, a la England--he will get resistance in the same way that Hillary Clinton got resistance when she tried to do tried to do this in the '90s."
As noted above, a government-financed national health insurance program is broadly popular in opinion polls, so it's unclear why Obama would get "resistance" if "Americans start to think" he's proposing such a plan. (If insurance companies start to think that, on the other hand, then they're certainly likely to create resistance.)
And Hillary Clinton in 1993 was certainly not proposing a government-financed system like Canada's, let alone a government-run system like Britain's; her "managed competition" plan was explicitly designed to preserve a central role for private insurance companies. It's hard to square the suggestion that Clinton was proposing a government-based healthcare system with Cohen's later acknowledgment that single-payer advocates were not "on the same page."
CNN plays a significant role in the healthcare debate. The channel's other top medical correspondent, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, was Obama's first choice to be surgeon general, and was one of the leading critics attacking Michael Moore's pro-single-payer documentary Sicko (FAIR Action Alert, 7/11/07). Cohen should use her prominent journalistic role in the healthcare reform debate to broaden and clarify the debate, rather than confuse and narrow it.
ACTION: Please write to Elizabeth Cohen and ask her to include the single-payer proposal as an option in the healthcare reform debate with continuing popular support.
CONTACT:
Elizabeth Cohen, CNN
404-827-1500
elizabeth.cohen@turner.com
Cohen is right that there were many people in favor of single-payer 15 years ago; as an Extra! article from that era (7-8/93) pointed out, New York Times polling since 1990 had "consistently found majorities--ranging from 54 percent to 66 percent--in favor of tax-financed national health insurance." The numbers today? A New York Times/CBS poll (1/11-15/09) found 59 percent in favor of government-provided national health insurance. In other words, contrary to Cohen's claim, people are on pretty much the same page today as they were 15 years ago.Fifteen years ago you sometimes heard--actually you heard quite a bit--people saying: "Let's have a single-payer system like in Canada. The government is going to be the health insurer for everybody." You don't hear that as much as you used to. So more people are on the same page more than they once were.
Cohen's suggestion that it was those loud voices that stymied "reform" is likewise unsupportable; as Extra! reported back in 1993, corporate media were then solidly behind the Clinton administration's big insurer-friendly "managed competition" plan:
Establishment journalists thus silenced those single-payer voices in 1993, just as Cohen and her contemporaries silence single-payer advocates today, as a new FAIR study recently revealed (3/6/09).While the phrase "managed competition" appeared in 62 New York Times news stories in the six months following the 1992 election, "single-payer" appeared in only five news stories during that period--never in more than a single-sentence mention.
Earlier (CNN Newsroom, 2/26/09), Cohen had argued that "if in time, Americans start to think what President Obama is proposing is some kind of government-run health system--a la Canada, a la England--he will get resistance in the same way that Hillary Clinton got resistance when she tried to do tried to do this in the '90s."
As noted above, a government-financed national health insurance program is broadly popular in opinion polls, so it's unclear why Obama would get "resistance" if "Americans start to think" he's proposing such a plan. (If insurance companies start to think that, on the other hand, then they're certainly likely to create resistance.)
And Hillary Clinton in 1993 was certainly not proposing a government-financed system like Canada's, let alone a government-run system like Britain's; her "managed competition" plan was explicitly designed to preserve a central role for private insurance companies. It's hard to square the suggestion that Clinton was proposing a government-based healthcare system with Cohen's later acknowledgment that single-payer advocates were not "on the same page."
CNN plays a significant role in the healthcare debate. The channel's other top medical correspondent, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, was Obama's first choice to be surgeon general, and was one of the leading critics attacking Michael Moore's pro-single-payer documentary Sicko (FAIR Action Alert, 7/11/07). Cohen should use her prominent journalistic role in the healthcare reform debate to broaden and clarify the debate, rather than confuse and narrow it.
ACTION: Please write to Elizabeth Cohen and ask her to include the single-payer proposal as an option in the healthcare reform debate with continuing popular support.
CONTACT:
Elizabeth Cohen, CNN
404-827-1500
elizabeth.cohen@turner.com
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5 Comments so far
Show AllInfotainment 'news' is always trying to marginalise popular opinion - and Hillary 'Wal-Mart' Rodham was always a right-wing hack in drag. Fascist-lite is still fascist - and still proving that Goebbels was accurate in his observations. It's pretty sad that US politicians and media are still following his ill-fated advice (add-vice) and 'on the same page' as the Nazi playbook. Just keep repeating the same lies over and over - hoping that they'll become a self-fulfilling prophecy. But that's NOT what's happened - the American public hasn't changed its mind despite decades of propaganda - they still support single-payer healthcare, and the numbers are growing in favor, rather than against, the only viable option. ('Viable' being the operative word here, with so many people dying because of healthcare denial.)
Choosing warfare over healthcare is not a popular 'choice' - it is merely fascist policy. Let's not forget that the original Nazis experimented with mass-murder on the disabled and mentally-ill - the most vulnerable population in any society.
"You don't hear that as much as you used to. So more people are on the same page more than they once were."
This is supposed to be "news" from a senior medical correspondent on a major network.
Look at what we've come to. Any number of homeless people could do a better job with similar ad-libbing. I bet if you replaced Cohen with a guy off the street nobody would notice.
Trading Places II
As for contacting her, honestly, I'm to embarrassed for her to send an email.
The mainstream media are a joke. One story that was never given much play was about Dr. William McGuire former CEO of United Health Care. His salary in his last year there was over $124 million dollars. The rest of the story from this NPR article is even more interesting. "All Things Considered, October 16, 2006 ยท A spreading corporate scandal over stock options has claimed the chief executive of the nation's second-largest health insurer. William McGuire will leave United Health Group after an independent investigation disclosed serious problems in the way stock options were granted at the company.
At the end of last year, McGuire's options were valued at $1.6 billion. At least 30 corporate officers and board members have resigned or been forced out at more than a dozen companies over the backdating of stock options." At the same time , other top executives at United health received over $2 billion in stock options. How many people had to be denied their claims for just those few obscenely over compensated idiots? I'd rather worry about the thieves in the government than today's greedy Corporate Executives.
I don't know what planet these folks live on, but single-payer health care is still a good idea, despite what the far-right conservatives have to say. Who the hell is stupid enough to let a news organization that is financially backed by heavy-hitting corporate sponsors tell you what is right or wrong for you, anyway?
We need single-payer health care and we need it now.
Many more Americans are stupid enough to let a news organization determine what is right or wrong for us than not, otherwise, we'd already have single-payer healthcare.