Dianne Feinstein Rejects Bernie Sanders’ Single-Payer Healthcare And Accepts Money From Insurance Lobbyists

Despite the fact that 58 percent of Americans support the idea of the single-payer healthcare system that Bernie Sanders has been advocating, Dianne Feinstein has fully rejected a federally-funded healthcare system, while accepting money from insurance lobbyists.

When speaking at a town hall crowd assembled to see her in San Francisco in April, she reiterated that despite the popularity of single-payer healthcare in California, it was an idea that Feinstein was not willing to get behind if it meant that it was government-controlled healthcare, as Maplight reports.

“If single-payer health care is going to mean complete takeover by the government of all healthcare, I am not there.”

With so many Americans currently disenchanted with politicians right now and the anger many on the left feel at the direction that the Democrats are going, Dianne Feinstein appears to toe the party line when it comes to her stance on healthcare.

Even with new polls showing that Bernie Sanders is currently the most popular politician in the United States, as the Inquisitr reported, and so many agreeing that what America needs is a complete overhaul of our healthcare system, Feinstein is not budging on the issue of a single-payer system.

Just one week after Dianne Feinstein’s town hall meeting in San Francisco, she is reported to have gone to Washington, D.C. to attend a fundraising event by the lobbying firm Avenue Solutions. Avenue Solutions represent various pharmaceutical companies, health insurers and is also the main trade association for doctors.

I called Dianne Feinstein’s office live on air to demand she support Medicare for all, you should too https://t.co/Op4KmnqEJ4 via @YouTube

— Secular Talk (@KyleKulinski) May 2, 2017

These various industries are very clearly opposed to Bernie Sanders’ idea of single-payer healthcare or Medicare-for-all. But showing why Dianne Feinstein is really opposed to a single payer system, she expected supporters at this event to donate enough money to support her upcoming re-election and willing accepted money from the insurance industry as well as the pharmaceutical industry.

It is also worth noting that since 2013, when Feinstein began her fourth term as senator, she has accepted at least $592,000 from lobbyists, which is reported to be a little over one-third of everything that has been raised by donations. Some of the most recent donors that Dianne Feinstein has accepted money from include Brian Griffin, who lobbies for the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, Democratic Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, who is a big lobbyist for the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association and, last but not least, Fred Graefe, who does lobbying work for the Federation of American Hospitals.

While Democratic critics have noted that you would be hard-pressed to ever imagine Bernie Sanders accepting money from insurance lobbyists, Dianne Feinstein openly does this and also accepts money from a few pharmaceutical companies which include, but are not limited to, Amgen, Merck & Co., and AbbVie.

When data compiled by the Center for Responsive Politics was looked at and analyzed, it was discovered that out of the $10 million Dianne Feinstein raised in 2012 for her re-election campaign, the fifth largest source of contribution to her campaign came from lobbyists. This may have accounted for her landslide win of 62.5 percent with all of those lobbyist heavyweights behind her.

With all of the support from insurance lobbyists behind her, this may be why some of those gathered at the town hall where she spoke in San Francisco shouted that she was a “sell-out,” as the Los Angeles Times reported. Other audience members yelled, “Single-payer now!”

What are your thoughts on Dianne Feinstein accepting money from insurance lobbyists and rejecting Bernie Sanders’ single-payer healthcare system?

[Featured Image by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images]