Critics of Bernie Sanders' Healthcare Plans Receive Funding From Industries That Would Be Affected

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Carl Jarvis <carjar82@gmail.com>
Date: Fri, 20 May 2016 08:03:21 -0700
Subject: Re: [blind-democracy] Critics of Bernie Sanders' Healthcare
Plans Receive Funding From Industries That Would Be Affected
To: blind-democracy@freelists.org

No surprises here. What is puzzling is how so many working class
Americans buy into the attack on single payer health insurance.
I know that many folks argue that we can't afford such an expense, but
they don't seem to have a problem with the huge profits creamed off by
the "protectors" of our nation's health.
Currently the life expectancy for USA is, as of 2012, 78 years for
females and 74 years for males. Now that's pretty good when compared
to the average back when FDR signed Social Security into law in 1935.
Women lived an average of 67 years and men an average of 63. Notice
that the retirement age of 65 was two years higher than the average
life expectancy of men? And remember, FDR died at the ripe old age of
63, still too young to collect his first SS check.
But compared to the life expectancy around the world, the USA is, if
memory serves me, around 34th. We're nestled just below Costa Rica,
and just above Qatar.
More than 30 nations are doing something better than we are. And for
the most part they are doing it at less of a financial drain. Even our
once highly regarded Veterans Care has fallen on hard times.
Okay, so if I were born with a silver spoon in my kissable baby mouth,
I'd understand growing up believing I and "My People" were simply
brighter than the Riff Raff. They were placed here by God Almighty
to serve and pleasure me.
But where, in all that is sane, is the thinking of working folks who
go along stooping and kissing the hem of the garment of their
corporate masters?
This must be the great riddle that we must solve before we are freed
from our bondage.

Carl Jarvis


On 5/20/16, Miriam Vieni <miriamvieni@optonline.net> wrote:
>
> Excerpt: "Left unsaid in the headlines and stories that condemned Sanders'
> healthcare proposal is that the Brookings Institution and Urban Institute,
> the two major organizations behind the Tax Policy Center, have received big
> contributions from the health insurance and pharmaceutical industries -
> industries whose profits could be reduced by Sanders' single-payer
> Medicare-for-all plan."
>
> Madonna Rea shakes hands with Democratic presidential candidate Bernie
> Sanders as he has breakfast at Peppy Grill in Indianapolis, May 3, 2016.
> (photo: Getty)
>
>
> Critics of Bernie Sanders' Healthcare Plans Receive Funding From Industries
> That Would Be Affected
> By Clark Mindock and David Sirota, International Business Times
> 19 May 16
>
> Soon after the Tax Policy Center released its analysis of Bernie Sanders'
> tax and healthcare plans last week, the negative headlines began to pile up
> about the Vermont lawmaker's push to extend Medicare coverage to all
> Americans. Though a new Gallup poll shows Sanders' plan is widely popular,
> news outlets across the country pounced on one of the findings, which said
> the plan would increase the U.S. budget deficit by some $18 trillion
> between
> 2017 and 2026. One paper, the Washington Post, posted Sanders stories in
> just seven hours.
> Left unsaid in the headlines and stories that condemned Sanders' healthcare
> proposal is that the Brookings Institution and Urban Institute, the two
> major organizations behind the Tax Policy Center, have received big
> contributions from the health insurance and pharmaceutical industries -
> industries whose profits could be reduced by Sanders' single-payer
> Medicare-for-all plan. That is on top of money the groups have received
> from
> Wall Street firms , fossil fuel companies, efforts connected to the
> billionaire Charles Koch, a foundation founded by the heirs to the Walmart
> fortune and others that Sanders has criticized.
> The health industry donors to the think tanks include:
> . Health insurer Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts delivered
> between $300,000 and $600,000 in 2012 and 2014 to the Urban Institute,
> while
> insurer UnitedHealthcare gave Brookings between $2 million and $4 million
> since 2012.
>
> . Several of the country's top drug manufacturers and suppliers gave
> to Brookings. The think tank's donors include the Roche Group (donated
> between $1 million and $2 million since 2012), Sanofi ($125,000 to
> $250,000)
> and Amgen ($100,000 to $200,000).
>
> . Two foundations connected to the pharmaceutical industry also gave
> generously. The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation - which was started by a
> Johnson & Johnson founder in 1972 - gave between $210,000 and $525,000 to
> Brookings and an undisclosed amount above $3 million since 2012 to Urban.
> The foundation for global pharmaceutical company Bristol-Myers Squibb gave
> between $55,000 and $125,000 to Brookings.
>
> . MetLife, which has some health-related insurance business, gave a
> combined $300,000 to $750,000 to Brookings in 2013 , 2014 and 2015 .
> Brookings and Urban both told International Business Times that their
> scholars conduct their research based on objective information and
> analysis,
> and that their institutions take measures to ensure independence. Both
> noted
> that their organizations have diverse funding and that they have policies
> against allowing funders to determine research results.
> "Brookings' independence is critical to the promise we make to provide
> objective, fact-based research, and we have robust policies in place to
> ensure that independence, which we routinely review to maintain the highest
> standards for safeguarding it. We have a diverse funding base and no
> person,
> entity, or industry influences the research or recommendations produced by
> Brookings scholars," David Nassar, the vice president of communications at
> the Brookings Institution, wrote in a statement to IBT.
> The Urban Institute explained its funding sources in greater detail. Laura
> Greenback, Urban's media relations manager, told IBT in an email that Urban
> receives 49 percent of its funding from government sources, usually in a
> competitive bidding process. Beyond that, researchers are also supported by
> the foundation (43 percent of funding last year), other nonprofits (5
> percent), as well as trustees, individuals, corporations and universities
> (1
> percent each).
> "Urban's policies ensure researcher independence and guarantee that no
> funder shall determine research findings, insights, or conclusions of our
> experts," Greenback wrote. "Our scholars are independent and empowered to
> share their evidence-based views and recommendations shaped by research.
> The
> Urban Institute doesn't take official positions on issues, nor does it have
> an advocacy agenda of any kind."
> The Tax Policy Center has also released analysis of several other
> candidates' tax plans, including Sanders' primary foe, Hillary Clinton.
> (Their analysis said her tax increases would target the top 1 percent of
> taxpayers, and noted that marginal tax rates would go up, "reducing
> incentives to work, save and invest." )
> In recent months, several reports have raised new questions about the power
> of so-called cognitive capture - scenarios in which organizations that
> represent themselves as nonpartisan or academic, but which are funded by
> industries that could be affected by the studies, help shape research and
> the public debate. Brookings, in particular, has faced some of the toughest
> scrutiny: In October, Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, a Democrat,
> questioned whether an economist with Brookings who conducted a study was
> unduly affected by cozy relationships with Wall Street and the funding
> behind his research. A 2014 report, too, noted that pension reform-minded
> reports from Brookings were sponsored by the Laura and John Arnold
> Foundation, which has pushed to reduce guaranteed retirement benefits for
> public workers.
> The Tax Policy Center report noted that spending under Sanders' plan could
> add as much as $33.3 trillion in new spending over the next 10 years, which
> dwarfs the current $14 trillion in debt currently owed by the federal
> government. Opponents of Sanders' plan say that such spending, if not
> offset
> by other revenues, would send the economy into a strong downward spiral.
> The Sanders campaign has said those estimates assume a much more expensive
> healthcare system than the candidate expects, and says low- and
> middle-income households would end up saving thousands of dollars a year.
> Error! Hyperlink reference not valid. Error! Hyperlink reference not
> valid.
>
> Madonna Rea shakes hands with Democratic presidential candidate Bernie
> Sanders as he has breakfast at Peppy Grill in Indianapolis, May 3, 2016.
> (photo: Getty)
> http://www.ibtimes.com/political-capital/bernie-sanders-tax-healthcare-plans
> -think-tanks-released-critical-study-receivehttp://www.ibtimes.com/political
> -capital/bernie-sanders-tax-healthcare-plans-think-tanks-released-critical-s
> tudy-receive
> Critics of Bernie Sanders' Healthcare Plans Receive Funding From Industries
> That Would Be Affected
> By Clark Mindock and David Sirota, International Business Times
> 19 May 16
> oon after the Tax Policy Center released its analysis of Bernie Sanders'
> tax and healthcare plans last week, the negative headlines began to pile up
> about the Vermont lawmaker's push to extend Medicare coverage to all
> Americans. Though a new Gallup poll shows Sanders' plan is widely popular,
> news outlets across the country pounced on one of the findings, which said
> the plan would increase the U.S. budget deficit by some $18 trillion
> between
> 2017 and 2026. One paper, the Washington Post, posted Sanders stories in
> just seven hours.
> Left unsaid in the headlines and stories that condemned Sanders' healthcare
> proposal is that the Brookings Institution and Urban Institute, the two
> major organizations behind the Tax Policy Center, have received big
> contributions from the health insurance and pharmaceutical industries -
> industries whose profits could be reduced by Sanders' single-payer
> Medicare-for-all plan. That is on top of money the groups have received
> from
> Wall Street firms , fossil fuel companies, efforts connected to the
> billionaire Charles Koch, a foundation founded by the heirs to the Walmart
> fortune and others that Sanders has criticized.
> The health industry donors to the think tanks include:
> . Health insurer Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts delivered
> between $300,000 and $600,000 in 2012 and 2014 to the Urban Institute,
> while
> insurer UnitedHealthcare gave Brookings between $2 million and $4 million
> since 2012.
> . Several of the country's top drug manufacturers and suppliers gave
> to Brookings. The think tank's donors include the Roche Group (donated
> between $1 million and $2 million since 2012), Sanofi ($125,000 to
> $250,000)
> and Amgen ($100,000 to $200,000).
> . Two foundations connected to the pharmaceutical industry also gave
> generously. The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation - which was started by a
> Johnson & Johnson founder in 1972 - gave between $210,000 and $525,000 to
> Brookings and an undisclosed amount above $3 million since 2012 to Urban.
> The foundation for global pharmaceutical company Bristol-Myers Squibb gave
> between $55,000 and $125,000 to Brookings.
> . MetLife, which has some health-related insurance business, gave a
> combined $300,000 to $750,000 to Brookings in 2013 , 2014 and 2015 .
> Brookings and Urban both told International Business Times that their
> scholars conduct their research based on objective information and
> analysis,
> and that their institutions take measures to ensure independence. Both
> noted
> that their organizations have diverse funding and that they have policies
> against allowing funders to determine research results.
> "Brookings' independence is critical to the promise we make to provide
> objective, fact-based research, and we have robust policies in place to
> ensure that independence, which we routinely review to maintain the highest
> standards for safeguarding it. We have a diverse funding base and no
> person,
> entity, or industry influences the research or recommendations produced by
> Brookings scholars," David Nassar, the vice president of communications at
> the Brookings Institution, wrote in a statement to IBT.
> The Urban Institute explained its funding sources in greater detail. Laura
> Greenback, Urban's media relations manager, told IBT in an email that Urban
> receives 49 percent of its funding from government sources, usually in a
> competitive bidding process. Beyond that, researchers are also supported by
> the foundation (43 percent of funding last year), other nonprofits (5
> percent), as well as trustees, individuals, corporations and universities
> (1
> percent each).
> "Urban's policies ensure researcher independence and guarantee that no
> funder shall determine research findings, insights, or conclusions of our
> experts," Greenback wrote. "Our scholars are independent and empowered to
> share their evidence-based views and recommendations shaped by research.
> The
> Urban Institute doesn't take official positions on issues, nor does it have
> an advocacy agenda of any kind."
> The Tax Policy Center has also released analysis of several other
> candidates' tax plans, including Sanders' primary foe, Hillary Clinton.
> (Their analysis said her tax increases would target the top 1 percent of
> taxpayers, and noted that marginal tax rates would go up, "reducing
> incentives to work, save and invest." )
> In recent months, several reports have raised new questions about the power
> of so-called cognitive capture - scenarios in which organizations that
> represent themselves as nonpartisan or academic, but which are funded by
> industries that could be affected by the studies, help shape research and
> the public debate. Brookings, in particular, has faced some of the toughest
> scrutiny: In October, Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, a Democrat,
> questioned whether an economist with Brookings who conducted a study was
> unduly affected by cozy relationships with Wall Street and the funding
> behind his research. A 2014 report, too, noted that pension reform-minded
> reports from Brookings were sponsored by the Laura and John Arnold
> Foundation, which has pushed to reduce guaranteed retirement benefits for
> public workers.
> The Tax Policy Center report noted that spending under Sanders' plan could
> add as much as $33.3 trillion in new spending over the next 10 years, which
> dwarfs the current $14 trillion in debt currently owed by the federal
> government. Opponents of Sanders' plan say that such spending, if not
> offset
> by other revenues, would send the economy into a strong downward spiral.
> The Sanders campaign has said those estimates assume a much more expensive
> healthcare system than the candidate expects, and says low- and
> middle-income households would end up saving thousands of dollars a year.
> http://e-max.it/posizionamento-siti-web/socialize
> http://e-max.it/posizionamento-siti-web/socialize
>
>
>