Grit Post -Rep. Richard Neal (D-Massachusetts), who has received more than $2 million from health insurers, will soon chair the committee that decides whether or not Medicare for All gets a vote.
Richard Neal is, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, the #1 all-time recipient of campaign donations from the insurance industry (which includes health insurers) who is still in Congress. Neal is only behind six others who have received more since 1990 — Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, John McCain, Chris Dodd, Paul Ryan, and John Boehner.
Because committee assignments are typically decided by seniority, Rep. Neal — who is currently the ranking member on the House Ways and Means Committee — is expected to become chairman of the committee once the Democratic majority in the House of Representatives is sworn in this coming January. As chair of the committee, Neal will be the ultimate decider of what bills get brought up for a vote in the committee, and which bills will die via pocket veto.
This could prove problematic for the Medicare for All movement, which will need to have a bill passed through Rep. Neal’s committee as such a proposal would require new taxes — which Neal’s committee oversees.... In August, Neal said he didn’t think universal health care is a “realistic” goal for the incoming Congress and instead endorsed incremental change of the health care system. In comments to the editorial board of the Hampshire Gazette, Neal said that people calling for a single-payer system would never be satisfied and needed to calm down.
1 comment:
People would be satisfied with a well designed single payer system. Rep Neal is an idiot
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