The millionaires and billionaires of America are dead-set against a public (competitive) option in health care reform. Look:
You may think that Corporate America wants healthy workers unencumbered by health care worries, and that Corporate America has their employees' best interests at heart. It could be just the opposite, though. Your employer might be happiest if you would just go ahead and die. Have you ever heard of "Dead Peasant Insurance"?
DEAD PEASANT INSURANCE
It's where companies take out life insurance policies on their employees, and when an employee dies, the employer collects many thousands (or millions) of dollars, not a dime of which goes to the surviving family. I did a web page about this back in 2002, when an Enron subsidiary was found to have taken out thousands of Dead Peasant policies (when they weren't busy bilking their customers, employees, and investors) and the proceeds from their peasants who died went to fund Executive retirement accounts. Nice, huh? I wonder how that's working out, in prison.
Apologists will say, "Well it costs companies money when their employees pass away."
You'll find in this video from ABC News a former music store cashier whose death was invested in with a payout of $339,000
Here's a website that is seeking to end Dead Peasant abuses
http://deadpeasantinsurance.com/
And here is a list of companies suspected of carrying dead peasant insurance on their employees...
You locals will spot Kansas City Power and Light and Kansas Gas & Electric on that list. You'll also see Wal-Mart, Coca-Cola, Disney, Bank of America, AT&T, and many other big corporations, probably the whole roster of the United States Chamber of Commerce, the group in the first video, the group warning us that health care reform is bad.
Share your feelings with your lawmakers, and also tell the media how you feel.
Mr. Potter: (chuckling) Why, you're worth more dead than alive!
