Control of Public Opinion
Control by Health Insurance Companies Influencing Citizens with Propaganda:Communication of Propaganda to Americans
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Year 2002 example: 79% against (969,537 votes against) in Oregon single-payer health care ballot proposal
— the citizen proponents of this proposal were outspent 10 (or more) to 1 with over a million dollars spent by opponents
Year 2009 example: 69% against (157,745 votes) in Facebook universal health care poll after extensive 2007 through 2009 media campaigns by single-payer opponents. See Additional Information, below, for more details on both the year 2002 and year 2009 examples.
Control by Ourselves Communicating the Truth:Communication of the Benefits Among Each Other
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Additional Information
2002 Oregon Ballot Proposal Initiated by Citizens
Measure 23: ” … finances a state health care program that would be administered by a new public non-profit corporation called the Oregon Health Care Finance Board.”
Hundreds, perhaps thousands, of activists got petitions signed in order to get the question on the ballot. Citizens worked hard to get 98,000 signatures.
Health insurance companies and pharmaceutical companies (and friends) poured hundreds of thousands of dollars into media efforts to defeat the proposals. The opponents included Kaiser Permanente, Regence BlueCross Blue Shield of Oregon, Pacific Source, ODS Health Plans.
Facebook Poll in 2009
Prior to the Facebook universal health care poll, extensive media campaigns had been in full force by single-payer opponents, which included AARP (early 2007), Health Care for America Now (HCAN) (starting in July 2008), and then increasing more in 2009 with efforts by Rick Scott, Brave New Films, and the Harry and Louise ads (pharmaceutical companies’ group), just to name a few. In the summer of 2009 $1.4 million per day was being spent opposing single-payer and supporting a solution that included the continued use of health insurance companies.
More About Control by Citizens
We can spend the majority of our time and effort on the education of Americans in a strategy that one might call “Prepare for Change.”
Educate and give solid answers to questions. Otherwise, the opinions of the public sway in the breeze when people see or hear the arguments against single-payer that come in newspapers, radio programs and television programs (as done in these Oregon and California examples).
Propaganda in 2007-2009 Leads to Logical Result in Facebook Poll
The current examples of active opposition go back to early 2007 (AARP), increasing in July 2008 (HCAN) and then increasing again in 2009 with efforts by Rick Scott, Brave New Films, and the Harry and Louise ads, just to name a few. Each of these times multi-million dollar campaigns were launched in an attempt to control the opinions of the public.
The impact in 2009 is seen in a Facebook poll, in which over 200,000 Americans had voted by August 10, 2009. For at least two weeks the percentage has been running at 70% against this question: “Should the U.S. adopt a Universal Health Care System?” I deliberately do not provide the internet link here to the poll. Just think about the 70% number. That’s what’s important, not trying to waste our time trying to get people to vote “yes”.
What should we do?
Remember the words of Barack Obama on 4/3/2007 when he very strongly recommended that we write letters and that he “insists” (he mandates) that the people establish a mandate for single-payer.
What did Obama indicate to a lady in the audience? Here is what he indicated, although not in these exact words:
The lobbying power of the health insurance companies can be overcome by sending a thousand to two thousand letters (in the U.S. Mail) to the U.S. Representatives in Congress.
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