4) Two Schools of Thought

Title: Behind Closed Doors, Repeating Mistakes from the Past on Health Care Reform

Summary: Dr. James Floyd writes an article in the Huffington Post that points out that the voices of single-payer advocates have not been invited to contribute in the health care reform discussions thusfar in Washington.

Topic: Should the Obama administration attempt a massive reform of the current Health Care system?
Category: Citizen. Expert

What is it? An article written by a doctor. Politics section.
Publication Information: Feb. 27, 2009
Author: James Floyd (M.D.)
Location: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/james-floyd-md/behind-closed-doors-repea_b_170379.html
Accessed: Mar. 1, 2009

Support:
James Floyd, Medical Doctor
Ted Kennedy, Senator of Massacusetts
Barack Obama, President of the United States
James Gelfand, United States Chamber of Commerce
The New York Times
Dr. James Floyd wrote this article in leiu of a report from the New York Times that Senator Ted Kennedy has been holding secret meetings with lobbyists to reach a “consensus” on the best type of health care reform. Both Senator Kennedy and President Obama are leaning toward a government-regulated reform that would mandate that all Americans purchase affordable insurance from existing companies. James Gelfand of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce believes that before a federal mandate is enacted the government needs to make health care affordable and more efficient.

Audience and Agenda:
The Huffington Post is a private news organization and web-blog  that was created in 2005. The Huffington Post attracts a liberal audience that reaches about 11.2 million people in the United States. The audience that follows the Huffington Post are able to receive news through a voice that they understand and sympathize with. The Huffington Post was created by Arianna Huffington and Kenneth Lerer as an alternative source for information rather than receiving it from mainstream media. The Huffington Post has won the Webby Award in 2006 and 2007 for Best Politics Blog. It receives 15 million dollars from investors, which includes five-million dollars of investment from Softbank Capital.

Usefulness:
It is disturbing that the voices for single-payer health care systems have not been invited to the table for reform meetings. Dr. Floyd argues that even if the Obama administration is not keen on the idea of a single-payer system as the health care reform of the future, they should at least give a voice in the discussion. Dr. Floyd also made connections between the “secret meetings” taking place in Washington today, and the meetings that took place in the 1990′s amongst health care and pharmecuetical lobbyists because they’re the same organizations as before. There were numerous mistakes made in the 1990′s when the Clinton’s health care plan failed, but one of the largest mistakes was allowing money and profit drive reform; let’s hope the Obama administration isn’t setting themselves up for the same blunder.

Works cited:

quantcast.com
huffingtonpost.com
google.com
wikipedia.org

For other online Citizen sources check out…
21) Statistics
19) Closed-Door Meetings
11) Brad Warthen’s Blog

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