Growing Discontents

In Counterpunch, Richard Rhames offers his perspectives on the history of failed attempts to achieve universal healthcare in the United States:

“…A lifetime of living without health insurance in a country where health care is just another profit extracting commodity has some downsides one discovers as one senesces. Blood clots in the wrong place can lead to weeks in hospitals, rehab facilities, and countless waiting rooms where …… one waits…
…Still, we who came to maturity at what turned out to be the crest of the New Deal have aged into Medicare and so have acquired the right under law to be patched up and sent back into the world. Back then it was assumed that public insurance for old folks was merely a beach-head in the decades-long political battle for universal healthcare.”

“…Alas, the war against Vietnam spelled the end of the New Deal Democratic Party …
…and the “beach-head” of Medicare is being converted into Medicare “Advantage”- just another private corporate insurance “product” dedicated to mining the federal treasury for private profit while denying care.”

Read the complete essay in Counterpunch HERE.

Richard is a farmer, activist, writer, social historian and musician. Recently he was featured in the Local Spotlight of the Saco Bay News: “Richard has developed a reputation as someone who means what he says, and says what he means.”