Once upon a time a very large country found itself nestled between two great oceans which protected it from attack. As the self-described hegemon of the world, it was always on the lookout for real or imagined attacks (mostly imagined it must be confessed). Since its founding 250 years ago, it has been at peace less than 20 years, The present Secretary of Defense has rebranded himself the Secretary of War. To give you an idea of how war-obsessed its leaders are: for 2026, its defense budget is $1 trillion ($1.5 trillion in 2027). Curiously enough, it has not been able to win a war (with the exception of its “glorious” crusade against the 1,500 soldiers of the Granada military) since it helped defeat the Axis powers in 1945. Still, there’s no denying that it is a hydra-headed colossus with 800+ military bases around the world that threatens on a regular basis to rain death and destruction down on weaker countries either directly or through one of its proxies (Ukraine for example). Wait a minute with all this aggressive militarism, veterans must be revered and honored. Not exactly. Beyond a careless “thank you for your service” in the grocery store check-out line, most ignore the 33,000 veterans who are homeless every night in America.
It calls itself the United States of America but that’s a misnomer. With the highest rate of inequality among advanced nations, the majority of its people (the 99%) are united only by their misery— rising prices, an uncertain job market. rising inflation, health insurance premiums going through the roof particularly for 22 million Americans whose insurance premiums doubled or tripled as federal ACA subsidies expired (nationally 14% missed their January premium payment), and skyrocketing housing costs.
The subject of this post is perhaps the biggest scam of all the scams that bedevil most Americans. No, it’s not having a president whose actions and statements (making Canada the 51st state, annexing Greenland and picking doofuses and baboons as his advisors and cabinet secretaries) suggest he is mentally unhinged. It’s not having participated in the use of sanctions [joining his three predecessor presidents] to kill 38 million people (60% of them children and women) worldwide since 2002. It’s not the U.S. having an educational system that produces American adults able to read only at a 7th to 8th grade level while the literacy rate among the people of Russia and China is close to 100%. It’s not even knowing that another in a long line of criminogenic congressman (former Speaker Nancy Pelosi heading the list) used classified information that he received as a member of the House Intelligence Committee to make a killing on the stock market (aided by his wife). It’s called insider trading and if the average American did it, a hefty fine and time in the slammer would be waiting. But for elected officials, it’s the road to riches.
Of all the immoral, often illegal plunder of the public purse, what stands out as the biggest con of all? It’s no secret. The United States has the most expensive healthcare system in the world raking in $5.6 trillion or $16,000+ per American (2025) consuming 20% of GDP. Yet in its primary obligation —the ability to keep its people healthy — the U.S. continues to fail. [Mirror, Mirror 2024 A Portrait of the Failing US health System by The Commonwealth Fund]
The secret sauce that makes possible such stupendous profitability (increasing year after year – up 7.1% in 2025, 8.2% in 2024 – more than three times GDP growth) is the time spent cozying up to elected officials. Not limited by party affiliation, it’s a bipartisan shakedown. At the end of 2022, Joe Biden (who was one of the biggest beneficiaries of Healthcare’s largesse) signed legislation kicking 25 million Americans off Medicaid as a thank you for the “generous” support from the healthcare industry which for his 2020 election campaign topped $13 million. Coincidence? You decide. What about a denizen from the other side of the aisle —President Trump? He has lots to be thankful for. For openers, a rollicking good inauguration (2025 Trump-Vance) made even better with the $11.5 million the healthcare industry kicked in. That’s just the tip of the golden goose. Separately, for the 2024 Trump-Vance campaign, these same gangsters contributed $16.5 million. [Open Secrets]. How altruistic of them. No wait like all the presidents before him, Trump knows that one good turn deserves (demands) another. His good turn happens to be bigger than most other good turns. His OBBA (One Big Beautiful Bill Act) subtracts $1 trillion from Medicaid devastating tens of millions of low-income families, at a cost of 50,000+ lives a year while at the same time gifting $1 trillion in tax cuts for the top 1 percent of Americans.
Healthcare lobbying expenditures rank #1 among all industries, a whopping $867,539,940 (Open Secrets) within striking distance of $1 billion. Equally unsurprising to learn that almost half (44%) of the lobbyists shilling for their healthcare masters are ex-government employees.
U.S. healthcare is a cave-dwelling mutant with three heads: Big Pharma, Big Med and Big Insurance and all three have their tentacles out. The Midas touch has new meaning when it comes to these chiselers. In this article we are marveling at how greedy and corrupt this spawn of empire is. A true triad of horrors.
Let’s look first at Big Pharma and its business model — “Drug companies maximize and exploit research financed by taxpayers to generate marketable new drugs. Then they price their wares to maximize returns for shareholders [Davos Man: How Billionaires Devoured the World”] In the process of their dash to trillions guess who are their biggest suckers (aka customers)? Every American taxpayer, at least those who have tangled with the healthcare empire, which is probably everyone. Decades of systemic propaganda have made them true believers. Often they arrive at the doctor’s door with a list of the drugs they saw advertised on TV. As one of only two countries who allow pharmaceutical DTC (direct to consumer) advertising (New Zealand is the other) the drug companies spent over $7 billion on TV advertising in 2025, a 16% increase over 2024. In 2025, globally Big Pharma raked in $1.7 trillion). Their biggest score was in the U.S. where Americans pay two to three times more for the same drugs as the rest of the world cashing out at more than $720 billion in 2025. [Prescription drugs in the U.S. cost 278% more than in other countries. Big Pharma charges us outrageous prices and then spends more on stock buy-backs and executive pay than R&D—Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib].
Every day is a payday for the executives, investors and owners of Big Pharma. What blessings do the rest of Americans get? For the most unlucky—death. As the third leading cause of death (after heart disease and cancer) 100,000-250,000 die every year taking prescription drugs as prescribed.
Even the feds give Big Pharma a pass. For violations like illegal marketing, kickbacks, and price fixing, Big Pharma has paid $127 billion in penalties since 2000—a mere rounding error.
What about the most corrupt unholy menace—Big Insurance? Maybe their business model will give you a hint: “The uniquely American health insurance system is a business designed to extract profit by maximizing cost and minimizing care to reward owners and shareholders with financial gain” [HC4US.org]. Like the other two big dogs of the healthcare mafia—it’s all about the money and they are rolling in it. In 2025, Big Insurance matched Big Pharma’s profits collecting 1.7 trillion ($54+ billion profit), most of it going into the pockets of owners, executives and investors. They beat their own record, bettering their 2024 performance by $175 billion. With ten million fewer suckers (aka customers), what’s the secret sauce that kept those billions rolling in? Hiking premiums (for both private paying customers and those enrolled in government programs like Medicare and Medicaid and employer sponsored insurance plans), erecting new and more onerous barriers to care and shepherding people into companies they own (especially doctors’ practices). This year premium increases for Obamacare plans rose between 22% and 28%. The effects of this wholly undeserved increase are catastrophic for the 99%—25 million cannot afford health insurance and “nearly 1 in 4 (23%) U.S. working-age adults—approximately 30-31 million people—are considered underinsured, meaning they have health insurance but high deductibles and out-of-pocket costs restrict their access to care.” [2024 “Mirror, Mirror: A Portrait of the US Failing Health System, Commonwealth Fund]. Even the mainstream media, their long-time vassals, are feeling the heat of their viewers’ ire. Every evening nightly news shows recount the stories of patients who have been refused coverage for life-saving treatment ordered by a doctor [NBC Nightly News: The Cost of Denial]. The largest health insurance company in the U.S, UnitedHealth (2025 revenue $448 billion) regularly denies coverage for one-third of the claims submitted to it, one of the highest denial rates in the industry. To make matters worse they lie about it and claim a 98% approval rate contradicted by reliable third-party reports of impartial agencies.
When it comes to Big Med —welcome to the privatized health care system in the U.S. where market metrics (the most important being profitability) dictate the standard of care. Want to know what the P.E. invasion has wrought? 68,000 poor souls die every year because they cannot afford the medicine or medical treatments they need. 25% of cancer patients (1 in 4) die or go bankrupt with the out- of-pocket expenses privatized hospitals and doctor’s practices charge. Medical debt is the leading cause of bankruptcy in the U.S. Raising prices is the sine qua non of private equity healthcare. Price go up 7% to 16% at hospitals acquired by private equity firms and 4% to 20% at the doctors’ practices they take over. Wait, it gets even more outrageous. Unnecessary, sometimes life-threatening procedures become the norm to jack up the bills. At privatized nursing homes the situation is even worse – mortality rates increase after takeover by 11%.
The private equity capture of America’s healthcare system shows no signs of slowing down, In the past decade alone these soulless corporatists have poured more than $1trillion into the healthcare industry. It’s the investment opportunity that is most attractive to greedy capitalists where the market is immense (every American needs medical attention at some time), the rewards in an unregulated market limitless, and the pushback to tame the ever-growing greediness of the purveyors of this wild west atmosphere nonexistent.
U.S. healthcare has become a corporate boondogggle, a multi-payer system that preaches the gospel of cascading profits achieved by a few billionaires at the expense of the rest of Americans. Meanwhile, the American health report card gets a failing grade year after year. Is there a solution? What about elected officials? No dice. A succession of post-World War II presidents, both Republicans and Democrats (Harry Truman, Richard Nixon, LBJ, Clinton, and Obama) have tried to enact a less inequitable healthcare system and failed. What about Congress, particularly the “Progressive” Caucus? Forget about it. They may talk a good game but when it comes to action, they are MIA. Ever mindful of the massive bribes, the healthcare industry, the lobbyist-in-chief, is capable of throwing their way or of withholding should they deviate from the official healthcare line, they stand four square with the industry and salute.
Maybe the American people need to wake up, shut off their phones, open their eyes and their windows and shout in unison “I’m as mad as hell and I’m not going to take it anymore. [Network, 1976]
