[lbo-talk] SEIU & health care

Doug Henwood dhenwood at panix.com
Tue Jan 30 15:56:31 PST 2007


On Jan 30, 2007, at 6:20 PM, Mark Rickling wrote:


> On 1/30/07, Seth Ackerman <sethackerman1 at verizon.net> wrote:
>> Interesting, but I don't get the historical analogy. The stench of
>> Bernstein? What is single-payer - the perfume of Babel? Lenin? Sorel?
>
> Trotsky, no doubt. Does Physicians for a National Health Program, New
> York Chapter, have a different position on 1199NY head Dennis Rivera,
> or is he assumed to have imbibed the purple kool-aid too?

I don't want to get flame-y about this, since there are a lot of folks working for SEIU I hold in high regard, but I gotta say this stance that people who support single-payer are some sort of hyperleftists or airheaded idealists, removed from the world of praxis, is annoying. It's a way of deflecting any questioning of whether the union is doing a sensible thing. I don't care what Dennis Rivera thinks in his heart of hearts; in the real world he's cut a lot of smelly deals with the likes of Pataki. Stern himself thinks you can get "universal" coverage by expanding on our present insane patchwork; that's economically and politically nonsensical. Could someone explain to me how what SEIU is doing on health care actually contributes to what really needs to be done?

Doug



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