Kucinich: Dems in Bed with Insurance, Pharmaceutical Companies

January 22, 2010 by
Doug Wetzel

Dennis Kucinich, member of the U.S. House of Representatives (D-Ohio)
Credit: United States Congress | © Wikimedia Commons

Ohio Democrat, Rep. Dennis Kucinich, thrashed his own party, health care companies, and Wall Street during an hour-long exclusive interview with the Raw Story.

Chiding the Obama administration as inadequate Kucinich bemoaned a lack of focus on creating jobs and a failure to maintain interest in the woes of the American people, naming economic issues as the topic of
Kucinich: Dems in Bed with Insurance, Pharmaceutical Companies
priority.

"We're really at a moment here, a moment of pivot. We need to regain the confidence of the American people by rallying them on the economic issues."

Insurance Companies the Problem

Insurance and pharmaceutical companies were mentioned as receiving unfair Democratic favor at the expense of the American people.

"Health care become too complex and too riddled with concessions to insurance companies and pharmaceutical companies," Kucinich suggested.

Last November, Kucinich voted against H.R. 3962 also known as the Affordable Health Care for America Act stating that "predatory, for-profit" companies in the insurance industry can't be faulted for a pursuit of profit but "are the problem, not the solution" behind a perpetual increase in health care costs.

"We're redistributing the wealth of the nation upwards by giving the insurance companies 30 million new customers, $50 billion a year more in revenue," he added during the Raw Story interview.

Current Reform Attempt Is Madness

Instead of striking out for small, incremental change to the health-care system, the Obama administration and Democrats have focused on a grander and even unpopular reform which has all but floundered over the last nine months.

Kucinich called the current Democratic push for health care reform "madness" resulting from an alliance between his party and insurance companies rather than citizens. Even critics normally lenient to the current administration have begun to question the degree of focus given to sweeping plans for health reform while the economy has serious health issues of its own.