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Health system, not in this decade, or next
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From
03/03/2008 21:31:51
Dragan Nedeljkovich (Online)
Now officially retired
Zrenjanin, Serbia
 
 
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Politics
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Title:
Health system, not in this decade, or next
Miscellaneous
Thread ID:
01298321
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01298321
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http://www.citizen.org/documents/PresidentialWTOreport.pdf

...and the crucial part so far (still reading):

In the mid-1980s, global trade negotiations coincided with the Reagan-Thatcher “revolution” attack against
the role of government in regulating economies and providing essential services. Corporate lobbyists,
laissez faire think tanks and GOP politicians with varying agendas but common extreme policy proposals
were being stymied by opposition in Congress and the public. Simultaneously, the framework was being
developed for the Uruguay Round General Agreement on Trade and Tariffs (GATT) negotiations. Past
GATT talks had focused on tariffs cuts and drew little public, press or policymaker attention.
In contrast, these GATT talks were transformed into establishment of a new global commerce agency, the
WTO, which could serve as a global delivery mechanism for an experiment in imposing the very “neo-
liberal” policies that were being rejected in democratic fora domestically. Often called the “Washington
Consensus,” this policy package became the core of the WTO, and included establishing a framework in
which services like health were treated not as rights but as new commodities providing new opportunities
to expand business opportunities and profits. Many of the 17 agreements enforced by the WTO redefined
government regulations promoting environmental and consumer protection to be “barriers to trade” to be
strictly disciplined or eliminated. “A lot of services that have traditionally been done by the government,
such as education, and social services, may become something that we’ll have to deal with in international
19
commerce,” argued one health insurance executive that had a leading role in advancing this notion.


Which means that no matter what the politicians may say, they pretty much can't do a thing, because they'll be shot (physical or character assassination, whichever is handier) if they propose leaving, redefining or disbanding the WTO.

So here's a bet: whoever wins in November, will end up doing something spectacularly expensive, profitable and eventually ineffective. Health will not be more affordable for anyone but the system's pets.

back to same old

the first online autobiography, unfinished by design
What, me reckless? I'm full of recks!
Balkans, eh? Count them.
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