Thelma

They are trying a new "Thelma" on Barack Obama. You will remember how Hillary Clinton's timid plan to overhaul health care was derailed by repeated ads where a fictitious Thelma was sounding dire warnings about universal single payer health care.
Big Pharma stands to lose a lot if ever this plan sees the light of day. I attended a conference in November, shortly after Obama's election. It was attended by most CEOs of big pharmaceutical companies, but also by politicians turned lobbyists. All swore to defeat Universal Single payer Health care. It is a simple choice of money used to care for sick Americans or for the pockets of Pharma shareholders. To scare off the American Public, they sound lies such as:Government healthcare is inefficient and expensive. The US health system is the Most inefficient and the Most expensive in the OECD. The US has a shorter life expectancy and a higher infant mortality rate than the OECD average.If the UK NHS system has a few problems, at least ALL citizens are covered. And all but elective services are performed without delay. As to the Belgian, German, French, Swiss, Scandinavian systems, not only they cover ALL citizens,they provide child care, maternity and paternity leave, and managed to be at the head of many medical breakthroughs. See the many Nobel prizes obtained by French doctors. You wonder why the American people never hears about THESE systems of Single Payer Universal Health Care!
I do not know about other examples, but I can confirm that everything Michael Moore said about the French system is true. Why? I used it and it saved my life free of charge.
So now, the headlines about Tom Daschle not paying his 123,000$ in taxes make more sense. What is that sum in regard to the cost of Health care, compare it to the 18 billions Wall Street CEOs gave themselves in bonuses from the bailout money, and compare it to the lives lost by an inefficient greedy , dysfunctional present health care. It is but the first salvo of Big Pharma.