Profits For Corporations Vs. Health Of Amercicans
On Tuesday, Wall Street took a big hit closing down more than 2 percent: The Dow industrials average closed
Down 2.10 percent, while the tech-laden NASDAQ composite index fell 2.37 percent and the S&P 500 closed 2.35 percent lower.
The losses were attributed to the minutes of the FOMC meet on August 7, indicating that there would be no immediate rate cut in the offing. The minutes described a policy response, should the credit crisis linger.
There’s a bunch of data that needs to be digested by investors as Ben Bernanke offers some tough love and targeted cure for ailing markets.
In my previous post, entitled “Poverty Down In U.S.; No. Of Uninsured Up?” I had outline some of the findings from a recent Census Bureau report.
To recap, the poverty rate was lower in the U.S. last year for the first time since President Bush took office. And that’s great news, though there are still many homeless and destitute that need help.
But there is an unfortunate sideeffect to the success of corporations that has been outlined clearly in the post “America’s Real God: Profits,” on the Blog of Mass Destruction.
According to the post, Republican candidates in the race for the White House are not in favor of a single payer health care plan. And neither are some Democrats. What does that mean?
Well, the Census Bureau also reported that the number of Americans with health insurance are dwindling and that the fraction of those insured under a employer-based plan has declined in 2006 in comparison to 2005.
Taking a look at some stats from CNNMoney, the total amount of profits last year for the top five firms in the health insurance and pharmaceutical industries amount to $63 billion.
And that’s after the package packages to CEOs, and big advertising dollars. Converted into 2007 standards, that amount is probably worth more.
According to the journal Health Affairs (link),
16 percent of Americans have no health insurance and 8 million of that figure are children (and organizations like the World Bank is fighting corruption among other vices to help poor children across the world from Washington), and 75 percent of those who go bankrupt by health problems do have insurance. That’s startling!
The conclusion to the post is that when the focus is on America’s priorities, corporate profits have taken the front seat over the health of Americans.
One presidential candidate who has given poverty more voice is Edwards. Two other front runners say that corporations can enjoy their profits and we can have a national plan (sort of “have your cake and eat it too” approach) if we include more people in the plan.
David Kucinich offers his solution to the mess: “It’s time we ended this thought that health care is a privilege. It is a basic right, and it’s time to end this control that insurance companies have not only over health care but over our political system. …” Check out the link.
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