Obamanomics: A Counterhistory

ACA was an invention of the rightwing think tank the Heritage Foundation, and it is Part 2 of Bush's Medicare Reform Act of 2003.  

If Republicans succeed in repealing it, the reason is so that they can reintroduc­e it with a few minor changes to throw off the dumber of their constituents and collect their share of booty from the insurance and pharmaceut­ical industries­.

If you don't want to believe that the parties work in tandem, build upon each other's 'successes­' (on behalf of corporatio­ns), just look at Bush's 2003Medica­reReformAc­t and RomneyCare­, both of which mirror ACA, and keep the problem in place (insurance companies as the gatekeeper­s to Americans getting medical treatment and employment­-provided insurance, both of which EVERYBODY wanted ended, skyrocketi­ng costs of medical care, no cost controls and not universal)­?

Fercrissakes, look at the donut hole!  

The 'donut-hole' that never should have existed in the first place, and that the DLC-controlled Democrats created as a "compromise" for Bush's Medicare Reform Act of 2003 (another massive corporate giveaway package).  

The whole of Medicare Part D was a scam and a scheme by both pro-corporate parties, a "first step" (as Obama's 'most ardent supporters' like to say) towards privatizing public healthcare.

In 2003, PhRMA lobbied hard and got Congress to insert language into the bill that created a Medicare drug benefit that prohibits Medicare from using its market clout to negotiate with manufacturers for lower drug prices and making sure the drug benefit was only available through private insurance plans.

The result was that Medicare members can only get drug coverage by joining a private insurance plan. People who have both Medicare and Medicaid (dual-eligibles) were switched from Medicaid prescription drug coverage to a private Medicare drug plan. Prescription drugs for this population cost 30% more under the new private Medicare drug plans than they did under Medicaid, increasing pharmaceutical companies' profits by at least $3.7 billion dollars in just the first two years of the program. For example, Bristol Myers earned a windfall of almost $400 million, thanks to higher prices for the stroke medication Plavix.

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