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What health reform? In the current bill, we will have no competition with insurance companies. They will still keep their treasured anti-trust exemption. The Medicare Prescription drug bill, which was and continues to be a massive windfall for pharmaceutical companies, will remain in place.
Americans will still not be allowed to purchase drugs from other countries, which have the exact same drugs but at one-tenth the price. And the beat goes on.
This bill is being touted as a victory for the American people, but it’s really a victory for the insurance industry. The policy of fast-tracking public money to private interests from the Bush era is still very much alive and well in Washington.
In my opinion, the current two-party system in America is a joke. It seems to me we really have just one party, representing not the American people but corporate, banking, Wall Street special interests.
I would support the Tea Party movement if it were not so far to the right. As Americans, perhaps it is time to start electing true independents (not like Joe Lieberman) who are there for the average American, and not for the few super powerful who really seem to be running this country.
Alan Shope
Gainesville