Chomsky on Health Care

Below is a snippet from a lecture by Noam Chomsky. He discusses why health care reform has taken so long in the U.S., despite documented public support for a nationalized system.

He argues that support has been suppressed for decades because the issue hasn't been a part of an ongoing debate, therefore eliminating public pressure. The recent publicity the issue has received can be traced to 2004. Shortly after the election (in which neither candidate favored health care reform on a national level), Congress "passed legislation that made it illegal for the government to use its purchasing power to negotiate drug prices." In the years that followed, the manufacturing industry voiced support for national health care because of skyrocketing manufacturing costs. This development is the only reason national care care has become "politically possible," in Chomsky's words.

What type of system we get, and who it benefits, remains to be seen.