The Mythology of the So-Called News Program 60 Minutes

By Steve Halpern

The other evening was a routine night where Judi and I watched the so-called news program 60 Minutes. We don’t expect to get an accurate view of the world from 60 Minutes, but some of the stories give a different perspective to the news. Last evening there was a story about a $450 million gift to the New York University Medical School that made this university “tuition free.”

Lesley Stahl was the 60 Minutes so-called reporter who told this story. She reported that Kenneth Langone and his wife Elaine organized to raise the funds for the medical school. Langone personally contributed $100 million. Langone also raised the funds to finance the Home Depot corporation.

This story also reported on the astronomical costs for tuition in order to obtain a diploma from of medical school in this country. Those costs can amount to $100,000 per year, including interest. Yes, that’s right, lending institutions gouge out huge profits from medical school students who need to take out loans.

Largely because of this state of affairs, the story reported that by the year 2030 there will be a shortage of 49,000 primary care doctors. Because tuition is so high, students routinely gravitate to the specialties that pay significantly more.

The announcement of this grant was met with a standing ovation by medical school students who were greatly relieved that they would not need to go into debt for decades. One doctor said that in order for her to pay off her student loan and the medical school student loan for her son, she would be paying until the day she died.

However, this story also gave us a bit of information that wasn’t a reason to celebrate. Half of all the medical school students come from families representing the most affluent 20% of the population. This, no doubt, comes from the fact that educational funding in this country is grossly unequal.

Educational funding in Philadelphia is half of what it is in the neighboring Lower Merion School District. This inequality for the funding of education is a flagrant violation of the 14^th Amendment to the Constitution that calls for equal protection under the law.

Understanding this reality, we can say that half of the $450 million grant will go towards giving financial relief to the 20% of the most affluent families in this country.

The real story

While Kenneth Langone donated a small part of his money to the N.Y.U. Medical School, he is adamantly opposed to taxing the wealthy. In March of 2014 Salon.com quoted Langone as linking populist demands to tax the wealthy, to the politics of the fascist Adolf Hitler. He argued that: “Because if you go back you 1933, with different words, this is what Hitler was saying in Germany.”

However, nowhere in the 60 Minutes story did they mention that in the nation of Cuba, not only is all medical school free for all the students, but Cuba has trained thousands of doctors from all over the world without charge. These doctors include about 100 students from the United States who were trained in Cuba. As a result, today Cuba has three times more doctors per capita as the United States.

Because of this reality today Cuba has a lower infant mortality rate than the United States. While infant mortality in this country varies widely between affluent and less affluent communities, the infant mortality rate in Cuba is uniform throughout the country. Why?

While doctors in this country spend little time with patients who do not have the more expensive medical insurance, in Cuba doctors routinely visit all pregnant women as well as their children.

However, those facts are only a part of the story. Cuba has eradicated eleven diseases through vaccination programs. Cuban medical volunteers who serve indigent communities throughout the world have delivered 2.6 million babies, done 9.1 million surgeries, 12.8 million vaccinations, and 4 million sight saving surgeries worldwide. These procedures were done by about 400,000 Cuban medical professionals since 1960.

Conclusion

So, we can say that the story about the $450 million financial grant to the N.Y.U. Medial School had a few problems. First, we can say that, in my opinion, Kenneth Langone never earned the obscene amount of money he has.

Wealth is created by workers utilizing the minerals in the ground to fabricate the commodities we all need and want. This is done by workers all over the world who manufacture and distribute the commodities. Some of these commodities are sold by the Home Depot Corporation. Kenneth Langone, being a capitalist, is routinely obsessed with cutting costs and this effort keeps the wages of workers down. He has merely convinced people with money to move their money from one place to another.

Leslie Stahl is paid millions of dollars every year, in my opinion, to pretend that she is reporting the news. The conversation between Stahl and Langone was between one millionaire speaking to a billionaire. Working people were barely represented in this story.

Yes, there are some medical students who come from families who do not have financial resources, who will benefit from this grant. However, this grant will not reverse the overall cutbacks in health care in this country.

In Philadelphia Hahnemann Hospital closed its doors laying off about 2,500 employees. This includes 500 residents who will have additional costs because their mal-practice insurance was cut off. Some of those residents are visiting from other countries, and are threatened with deportation if they fail to obtain a new medical residency.   

About fourteen maternity wards have been closed in the Philadelphia area. These kinds of cutbacks are happening all over the country. Yet the United States spends more on health care, per person, than any other nation in the world. The contrast between health care in this country and Cuba couldn’t be more striking.

So, a question must be asked that the so-called news program 60 Minutes isn’t interested in asking. Why is there such a profound difference between health care in Cuba and this country, given that Cuba spends only a tiny percentage of money for health care as the United States? The clear answer is that in Cuba the government makes the needs of the people their top priority. In this country the priority of the government and the capitalist press makes the drive to maximize profits for corporations it’s primary goal.