Hitler Healthcare Minions: "We Can't Afford Hill-Burton"

May 22, 2009 (LPAC)--Under the banner of "Health Reform," the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the Urban Institute held an event entitled, "The Cost of Failure." But don't let this title fool you--this is not a figurative phrase. The purpose of this event was to release a new report which, quite literally, makes the first attempt to put a price on failing to cut costs in medical expenditures. How was this price determined?

"We used the Urban Institute's Health Insurance Policy Simulation Model (HIPSM), which uses national survey data and economic analysis of individual and business behavior, to examine how employer-sponsored insurance (ESI), private non-group coverage, and Medicaid/CHIP are likely to change over the next decade."

This sophisticated model shows that unless reforms are made right now, we will be heading down a costly spiral. Healthcare costs go up, leading to insurers increasing their premiums, which in turn drive away their customers. And, if they lose their customers, government programs, like Medicaid, will have to pay for them, which lays the "burden" on taxpayers. All of this leads to the conclusion that all Americans need health insurance. This fits in nicely with the Obama administration's demand for "cheap universal health coverage".

But what is this really about? Isn't this the same Robert Wood Johnson Foundation pouring funds into studies investigating the cost-effectiveness of euthanasia? The panel at this event, made up of statisticians and "public policy" people, or rather PR people, was asked: "Isn't this just an attempt to maintain the profits of insurance companies, rather than providing healthcare? If we really wanted to provide healthcare, wouldn't we repeal the HMO legislation and go back to the Hill-Burton standards?"

Len Nichols, director of the Health Policy Program at the New America Foundation, former member of Competitive Pricing Advisory Comission, the 2001 Technical Review Panel for Medicare Trustees Reports, and the advisory panel to the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation's Covering America project, responded: "We can't afford Hill-Burton; we need organized healthcare."

So, it looks like the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the Urban Institute are trying to cover something, albeit not so well: their fascist/corporativist intentions.