The National Anthem -- And Why We Need Health Care Reform So Desperately

robertreich.org — Anthem Blue Cross is a microcosm of what ails our private for-profit health insurance system — the most expensive in the world, whose costs are rising faster than anywhere in the world; a system rapidly becoming unaffordable to more and more Americans, in which insurers are rapidly consolidating into behemoths that have almost no competitors. And a system in which the biggest health insurers are lobbying like mad against reform because they like things just the way they are. They can squeeze the public and the public has no alternative but to pay up. All this makes Anthem one of he best arguments for reform — which is probably why the President mentioned Anthem today when he emerged from what was billed as a "bipartisan" meeting to talk about health care and jobs.

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