The American health reforms – A Nice Gift for the Insurance Companies

At the time of the of the Trattamento di Fine Rapporto (severance pay) ”reforms” in Italy, which effectively obliged employees to insure themselves against being laid off, we wrote a commentary entitled: “The TFR swindle: getting the naked to invest”. We could say the same about the so-called health reforms in the United States, recently signed off by Obama, capitalism’s puppet, on 21 March, 2010.

Bourgeois propaganda is pulling out all the stops to convince us that, despite the scale of the crisis, all we need to get us through is democracy; and someone who has the people’s interests at heart, in this case, Barack.

But you only have to scratch the surface to see this bombastic propaganda for what it is: pure hype!

Despite what they say there are already two public welfare systems in the United States which cover around 45% of American health expenditure and which represent around 16% of the USA’s GNP. These two systems, Medicare and Medicaid, provide assistance to around 17 million Americans who are without insurance cover.

Medicare was established under Lyndon Johnson’s administration in 1965 in order to guarantee the federal cover of medical expenses for those 65 years and older, although those under 65 are also covered if they suffer from certain specified illnesses. Medicaid, on the other hand, is administered not by the federal government but by the individual states and is strictly related to income.

According to figures for 2003 from the Washington Post and the Kaiser Family Foundation, the number of employees in that year was 122 million. Out of these, 41 million (21 million part-time, 20 million full-time) had no health cover offered them by their employers, 40 million were offered a choice between two private insurance schemes, and 41 million were offered just one option. All such schemes were chosen by the employer.

The average annual premium for those with families was $9,068. The worker – still 2003 figures – paid out an average monthly sum of $201.

All the company insurance companies provide specific and limited cover for the services they offer and almost always with supplementary charges attached, i.e., in 35% of cases of hospital admissions; in 90% of cases for the cost of medicine and 100% of cases for medical examinations.

More than 40 million employees are not insured, at least not by their employer, and data from the same sources tell us that there are at least 44 million citizens without any kind of health insurance whatsoever.

Even without the most recent figures we can safely say that that amongst the proletariat and under-proletariat, living conditions have significantly deteriorated. Since 2003 the contradictions inherent in the capitalist system of production have shown themselves to be implacable and unrelenting, just as Marxism predicted. In fact, company closures and what the bourgeoisie like to call ‘restructurings’, in other words sackings, have resulted in an exponential growth of the uninsured.

The reform was passed with the support of the fanatical anti-abortionists, who in exchange obtained a United States wide prohibition against the use of federal funds to pay the costs of abortions.

Obligatory insurance has been introduced, and on pain of a fine of around $695 for non-compliance. Those for whom the insurance premiums would cost more than 9.5% of their income will be eligible for a state subsidy of up to $6,000. The program predicts an expenditure of around 940 billion dollars over ten years, 500 billion of which will be recuperated from cuts in funding to … Medicare!

If the average cost of company insurance schemes in 2003 was $9,068, workers will have to up their payments significantly in order to be able to cover future premiums. It really is a nice gift for the insurance companies. In the new amendment there is a provision for fining companies $2,000 (but only those with 50 or more employees) for each employee who isn’t insured, even though the first thirty won’t be taken into account!

How can we doubt Obama when he tells us: “We are still capable of great things!”