Kucinich slams Obama: Healthcare savings ‘unconscionable rip-off’

The Obama administration’s plan announced yesterday to save trillions in healthcare costs is an “unconscionable rip-off of the American people,” Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio) argued Tuesday.

Kucinich slammed the administration’s deal, brokered with insurers, labor, healthcare providers, and other parties to save $2 trillion over the next 10 years as another bailout for a major industry.

“This is an unconscionable rip-off of the American people. This is a bailout of the insurance industry,” Kucinich, an advocate of a single-payer, government run system said Tuesday on National Public Radio.

“Just like we bailed out the banks, we’re bailing out the insurance industries,” he argued. “And so I emphatically disagree with the approach that the White House is taking. In the end, it’s going to mean more taxpayer dollars going to the insurance industry.”

Kucinich lamented that the “savings” touted by the administration are simply a diminished rate of profits for insurance corporations; he believes healthcare is a “basic right” that should be provided for free by the government.

“People should not exist for the healthcare companies, healthcare should exist for us,” he said, urging the Obama administration to put a single-payer option on the table while pushing for healthcare reform.

Find the entirety of Kucinich’s remarks on NPR’s podcast page here.