Last night, Manatee/Sarasota Move To Amend screened FIX IT - Healthcare at the Tipping Point. The documentary took a look at how unaffordable and, in some cases, insufficient health insurance has become for most U.S. residents. Business owners took stock concerning the difficulty of budgeting with unknowable and ballooning health care costs. City leaders showed how they had to move funding from their deteriorating or non-functional infrastructure in order to fund rising health insurance premiums for city staff. A physician limited his practice to Medicare and Medicaid patients, so that he didn't have to deal with the plethora of health insurance company bureaucracies. And then there were the heartbreakers - those whose medical costs had driven them into bankruptcy, even though they were insured. Finally, the movie showcased the single payer medical system in Canada.Once we'd all watched the film, Kurt Bateman fielded questions about a Single Payer healthcare system for the United States. Diane Desenberg tackled the Big Money in Politics side of the issue. Her research had uncovered PAHCF, The Partnership for America’s Health Care Future. PAHCF is made up of major pharmaceutical companies, insurance companies and private hospitals. They have spent the last several months lobbying members of Congress, running online ads, and working with the media to drive down the popularity of Medicare for All. This single-payer health legislation been gaining support in Congress.
PAHCF includes some of the biggest names in the healthcare industry, including the American Medical Association (AMA), Pharmaceutical Research & Manufacturers of America (PhRMA), Federation of American Hospitals (FAH) and Blue Cross/Blue Shield.
The members of this partnership have a lot of money to spend and influence to pedal on Capitol Hill. They spent a combined $143 million lobbying in 2018 alone, according to data from the Center for Responsive Politics.
If you missed the movie, "FIX IT - Healthcare at the Tipping Point", you can view it here
.
