Tea Party threat to healthcare

Submitted by Matthew on 5 October, 2011 - 10:52

By Graeme Kemp

The so-called US Tea Party is indeed “chilling” (Solidarity 218). If the next US president is a Republican, the Tea Party will move closer to power.

Obama’s modest health care reforms will be rolled back. It will literally be “business as usual” as the heath care companies boost their profits even more. Yet the US health care system was always pretty costly and less efficient than its right-wing supporters claim.

There is a warning here for the UK, I think. As Tory cuts affect the NHS, further privatisation of health care will be presented to us as inevitable and the only way to deal with longer waiting times. There are enough private health care vultures waiting to chew off profitable chunks of the NHS.

The US Tea Party movement always described itself as grassroots. In fact, it’s more accurately called “astroturf”. In short, a fake grassroots revolution. It’s funded by millionaires. Taki Oldham’s excellent documentary “Astro Turf Wars” exposed the Tea Party very effectively. And yet many UK Tories admire the Tea Party.

In the USA and UK we need a genuine revolt of working people to save and improve health care for all. And that doesn’t mean more private health care either.

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