“Sicko” 2007
Recently, The Miami Herald pulled off such an insult to its 13 readers (most of them staff writers), such a jaw-dropping, crass deception you can only wonder if the short yellow bus has a terminal at the newspaper’s offices. After you read Kevin G. Hall’s article, watch the clip and listen to the Nixon tapes.
“All the incentives are towards less medical care, because the less care they give them, the more money they make….“
Discussing the details of Edgar Kaiser’s for-profit model in health care, Ehrlichman promotes its “advantages” to Nixon. The president clearly approves.
It’s an interesting juxtaposition indeed, and it becomes clear either the clip or the article are the most vile form of propaganda, with not a shred of truth in it. Which is it then? Hall’s revisionist assessment of Nixon’s alleged effort to promote a national health plan, or Nixon’s own words and agenda, captured on tape? The story itself, however, wasn’t a condemnation of President Nixon, who gave us HMOs as we know them today. It was a fawning, printed fellatio of the dead president that brazenly misrepresented everything he did in terms of health care. The Miami Herald’s headline was as follows:
Clinton healthcare plan like Nixon’s. Mere months before the Watergate scandal erupted and eventually destroyed his presidency, Richard Nixon proposed a plan for universal healthcare
Even before Democratic presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton unveiled her new healthcare plan, Republicans attacked it as socialized medicine. They neglected to mention, however, that her plan bears a striking resemblance to changes that were proposed in 1974 — by the late President Richard M. Nixon.
”It was an extremely extensive plan, as I remember, that would have given universal coverage” for healthcare, recalled Rudolph Penner, a former director of the Congressional Budget Office and economic official in the Ford administration. Nixon introduced his Comprehensive Health Insurance Act on Feb. 6, 1974, days after he used what would be his final State of the Union address to call for universal access to health insurance…. Nixon grew up poor and lost two brothers to tuberculosis, which marked him for life. He frequently pointed to the cure for tuberculosis as a medical marvel that underscored the need for a public-private partnership on healthcare.
”It was something personal for him,” Price said of Nixon’s healthcare push.
Now that you’ve read Hall’s witless, apologist propaganda on the matter, see the clip above for a serious reality check. See the original article here…..