By Noam N. Levey
Los Angeles Times
August 11, 2010

The top executives at the nation’s five largest for-profit health insurance companies pulled in nearly $200 million in compensation last year — while their businesses prepared to hit ratepayers with double-digit premium increases, according to a new analysis conducted by Health Care for America Now.

http://www.latimes.com/health/la-fi-insurance-salaries-20100811,0,7386070.story

And…

White House spokesman blasts liberal critics

By Peter Nicholas and Tom Hamburger
Los Angeles Times
August 11, 2010

Festering tensions between the White House and liberal activists flared Tuesday, with presidential Press Secretary Robert Gibbs scolding what he called “the professional left” for its vocal objections to President Obama’s record.

“These people ought to be drug tested,” Gibbs said. “They will be satisfied when we have Canadian healthcare and we’ve eliminated the Pentagon. That’s not reality. They wouldn’t be satisfied if Dennis Kucinich was president.”

The backlash against Gibbs was swift.

Dr. Quentin Young, a Chicago physician and national coordinator of Physicians for a National Health Program, which advocates for single-payer health insurance, said he was “incredulous” when he first heard of Gibbs’ comments. Young, an early supporter of Obama, immediately wrote Gibbs.

“I believe that unless you retract the insulting description of deeply committed citizens you will drive off those of us who supported the president’s campaign and have anguished over the fruitless lurches to the right that have characterized the first half of the president’s first term,” Young wrote.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-gibbs-20100811,0,7297603.story

Comment: 

By Don McCanne, MD

It is no secret what the Democrats under the leadership of President Obama did when it came time to fix our health care system. They left the big corporations in charge of the health care funds. The report on the very high compensation for the top executives of the nation’s five largest for-profit health insurance companies at a time of double digit premium increases leaves no doubt as to who the financing infrastructure is designed to benefit. It is a sickening example of our national priorities which result in a massive transfer from the ordinary people to the wealthy.

Liberals who care are becoming less tolerant. The message has been received by The White House. Their response? We should be “drug tested” for wanting “Canadian healthcare.”

PNHP’s Quentin Young has responded appropriately to presidential Press Secretary Robert Gibbs, as quoted above.

It isn’t that those on the left who wanted a better deal for all Americans are poor losers. It’s that the administration of Change who greased the conduits for the upward flow of societal funds are bad winners.

How effective the mind is in dealing with perceptions and realities brings us to asking another question. Who is it that needs to be drug tested?

Executives at health insurance giants cash in as firms plan fee hikes

By Noam N. Levey
Los Angeles Times
August 11, 2010
The top executives at the nation’s five largest for-profit health insurance companies pulled in nearly $200 million in compensation last year — while their businesses prepared to hit ratepayers with double-digit premium increases, according to a new analysis conducted by Health Care for America Now.
http://www.latimes.com/health/la-fi-insurance-salaries-20100811,0,7386070.story

And…

White House spokesman blasts liberal critics

By Peter Nicholas and Tom Hamburger
Los Angeles Times
August 11, 2010
Festering tensions between the White House and liberal activists flared Tuesday, with presidential Press Secretary Robert Gibbs scolding what he called “the professional left” for its vocal objections to President Obama’s record.
“These people ought to be drug tested,” Gibbs said. “They will be satisfied when we have Canadian healthcare and we’ve eliminated the Pentagon. That’s not reality. They wouldn’t be satisfied if Dennis Kucinich was president.”
The backlash against Gibbs was swift.
Dr. Quentin Young, a Chicago physician and national coordinator of Physicians for a National Health Program, which advocates for single-payer health insurance, said he was “incredulous” when he first heard of Gibbs’ comments. Young, an early supporter of Obama, immediately wrote Gibbs.
“I believe that unless you retract the insulting description of deeply committed citizens you will drive off those of us who supported the president’s campaign and have anguished over the fruitless lurches to the right that have characterized the first half of the president’s first term,” Young wrote.
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-gibbs-20100811,0,7297603.story

It is no secret what the Democrats under the leadership of President Obama did when it came time to fix our health care system. They left the big corporations in charge of the health care funds. The report on the very high compensation for the top executives of the nation’s five largest for-profit health insurance companies at a time of double digit premium increases leaves no doubt as to who the financing infrastructure is designed to benefit. It is a sickening example of our national priorities which result in a massive transfer from the ordinary people to the wealthy.
Liberals who care are becoming less tolerant. The message has been received by The White House. Their response? We should be “drug tested” for wanting “Canadian healthcare.”
PNHP’s Quentin Young has responded appropriately to presidential Press Secretary Robert Gibbs, as quoted above.
It isn’t that those on the left who wanted a better deal for all Americans are poor losers. It’s that the administration of Change who greased the conduits for the upward flow of societal funds are bad winners.
How effective the mind is in dealing with perceptions and realities brings us to asking another question. Who is it that needs to be drug tested?