The health care “reform” proposals being developed by the Obama administration, like every element of its policy, are entirely subordinated to the interests of the corporate and financial elite. For this reason, they are not only inadequate, they are reactionary and will serve only to deepen the health care crisis in the United States.

As of yet, the administration’s health care proposals have been described only in the vaguest terms. This is for definite reasons. Obama is seeking a procedure for ditching even his limited campaign pledges regarding health care. At the same time, he wants to make clear that business interests will have the final say on how any new program is structured.

It is already clear that a number of the proposals on which Obama campaigned only a few months ago—including a limited government-operated insurance program and a measure that would force employers to pay more for health care—will be ditched. Other more far-reaching proposals, such as the establishment of a single-payer universal health insurance program, have been excluded from the discussion entirely.

Unlike many industrialized countries, the United States never implemented a state-run universal system of health insurance or health care. Some 50 million Americans are completely uninsured, while tens of millions more are inadequately insured. Most workers who are able to get insurance do so through their employers or from Medicare or Medicaid, the federal entitlement programs for the elderly and the poor. Others are forced to purchase high-cost private insurance.

In the midst of a growing economic crisis, employers are anxious to cut costs by reducing health care payments or eliminating company insurance programs completely. The program developed by the Obama administration will likely establish as a substitute the partial subsidization of private insurance. This will be a boondoggle for the insurance companies and allow companies to cut back or eliminate health coverage for their employees, while forcing workers to pay more for less-comprehensive care.

There is more to the story……

The Obama administration is signaling that it’s open to taxing employee health benefits, a position that President Barack Obama criticized U.S. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., for holding during last fall’s campaign.

The potential tax would finance an overhaul of the U.S. health-care system, according to reports. However, it may prove to be politically troublesome for Mr. Obama, who decried the idea, accusing Mr. McCain of ruining the health-care system for the middle class.

Currently, health-care benefits provided by employers are tax-free, regardless of the details of the plan or the salary of the employee. Although any change in the current system would be opposed by union leaders and some employers, the New York Times reported while the president will not propose changing the tax-free status of employee health benefits himself, he would not oppose the same measure if proposed by Congress.

Is it just me or are things not changing for the better?