We made sanctuary cities necessary. Good inflation news. Medicare Advantage Scandals persist.
American policy's partially responsible for northward migration and sanctuary cities. Medicare Advantage continues the pilfering of our elders. What about those better-than-expected inflation numbers?
Our three stories today may seem disjointed, but they all have a common thread, corporate supremacy. While we have many who continually speak about an overbearing government, the real problem is a corporatocracy that purchases enough politicians in our government to get their will. They ensure that at all costs, they are given carte blanche for unfettered profits worldwide.
The ebb and flow of the migration of bodies from Central America, South America, and beyond have its genesis in policies we ultimately create that benefit U.S. Corporations. A case in point was the CIA-induced overthrow of Guatemala’s first democratically elected President, Jacobo Arbenz Guzman, in late June 1954. He established policies that would redistribute unused land in that country. When the powerful American-owned United Fruit Company lost many acres of land, the CIA came to the rescue. The country has never recovered.
The United States spent billions of dollars in El Salvador to prop up the Right-Wing oligarchs and generals that ruled the country. They wanted no part in improving the lives of the peasants. The wealthy in the country owns most of the land, including the best lands to grow coffee, an important export.
These stories were replicated over and over around Central America and the world. One of the results has been the migration of human bodies, most to the United States. This created the need for sanctuary cities. As a country filled with humane citizens, they created necessary sanctuaries. The performance “Little Central America,1984,”: A sanctuary Then, and Now Presented in partnership with DiverseWorks, is playing in Houston. It was conceived by Executive Producer Ruben Martinez and Produced and Directed by Elia Arce. Politics Done Right will speak to both of them, and the interview when complete.
President Joe Biden was happy with the better-than-expected inflation numbers. Inflation rose slightly, but year over year, it is 7.1%, even with just a .1% month-to-month rise which looking forward, should be annualized to 1.2%. But that is not how reporting a neoliberal media tacitly gives the Feds an excuse to continue squeezing Americans with interest rate increases to tame inflation caused by corporate greed and willful incompetence.
Corporations continue to lie to Americans with deceptive advertising. They want most to believe that Medicare Advantage is the same as Medicare. I have written about this often. The fraud is in advertising and scamming the government that pays a premium above and beyond standard Medicare. CommonDreams reports the following.
As yet another scandal involving Medicare Advantage made headlines this week, progressive U.S. lawmakers and advocates renewed calls to abolish the private health insurance program that a recent Senate report said is "running amok" with "fraudsters and scam artists."
"In reality, so-called 'Medicare Advantage' is neither Medicare nor an advantage."
In a new Nation article written with health insurance reform advocate Wendell Potter, Reps. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) and Mark Pocan (D-Wis.) contend that one of the most confusing things facing elders while choosing their Medicare plans "is a scheme by private insurance companies to prey on seniors and profit off of the Medicare brand, all in the name of padding their corporate profits and shareholder returns."
"The scheme is called Medicare Advantage. But in reality, so-called 'Medicare Advantage' is neither Medicare nor an advantage," wrote the lawmakers, who earlier this year introduced legislation that, if passed, would ban private insurance plans from using the Medicare name.
"It's actually just private insurance that uses the trusted Medicare name to trick seniors and people with disabilities into enrolling, then profits by denying coverage for necessary medical care," Khanna and Pocan added. "It is long past time for Congress to end this scam and ensure that consumers get accurate information about their healthcare options."
The polarization in America today allows our corporate state to fleece us all as we are too concerned about our nonexistent differences promoted by the evil genius of neoliberal think tanks and advertising.
Rank & File Americans from every area, rural and urban, demographic, religion, orientation, and other descriptors must realize our commonality. We have one force working against us. And that force is not each other. It is an overbearing oligarchy we must put in check.
This subject is the topic of discussion today on Politics Done Right on KPFT 90.1 FM Houston today at Noon Central Time (1 PM Eastern/10 AM Pacific/11 AM Mountain). You can listen to it on air at 90.1 FM in the Houston metropolitan area or at politicsdoneright.tv.
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It's about time private insurance companies are made to stop using the trusted name of Medicare! There's price transparency concerning costs of specific procedures at hospitals, so passing misrepresenting titles in Congress falls along the same lines.