Watching the health care bill make its last rounds is like being at a New Year’s bash a few hours too long. At first, it’s all 
fun and excitement. But after the height of the celebration, when all the optimism of what’s to come has grown faint, it feels like a big, fat drag.
I was all hyped, for example, about universal coverage. As far as I’m concerned, there are times when the government has to ensure that resources are distributed equitably. And health care is just one such issue.
No matter, though. When conservatives cried foul, the president quickly ditched the idea for the seemingly more palatable public option, which was in and then it was out, and then it was in again and now it’s out.
Who can keep up? It’s difficult to figure out which reform is actually part of the reform. And am I the only one who feels like the entire debate has gone from energizing to energy draining? These days, health care reminds me of last week’s hangover: heavy, tiresome and short on fun.
In the latest non-progress surrounding the bill, the Senate race in Massachusetts is closer than Democrats expected. The party is in danger of losing its majority, which it needs to push health care legislation through. A surprise win for the GOP in Ted Kennedy’s old seat would no doubt be a setback for the Dems. In turn, that would likely delay the bill further, which translates into critical setbacks for me and many others.
You see, I’m one of those Americans who would be denied insurance coverage because of my preexisting condition, even if I pay for it out of pocket. My medical history sends up clouds of black smoke to carriers. But under the new health care bill, discriminating against folks based on health conditions would be illegal.
In the interim, a program like Medicare could offer a reprieve for people in my situation. Under the new bill, Medicare will be expanded to include Americans with serious diseases under the age of 65. These measures, however, take time to implement, and a languishing bill is only exasperating matters. According to a piece written by DNC Chairman Howard Dean, most Americans wouldn’t see the benefits of the bill until 2014.
A lot of good that’s doing for the uninsured or underinsured today.
The latest news out of Washington is that there will likely be another version of the health care bill before lawmakers agree on one. I’m feeling like they’ve had one too many already.
6 Comments
January 12, 2010 at 1:57 pm
To me, without the public option there won’t be any reform. It will be the same thing with the insurance companies holding all the power.
January 12, 2010 at 3:06 pm
That’s the problem, the insurance companies. The power has to be taken from them. There has to be a public option.
January 12, 2010 at 5:02 pm
Well, it seems we are fully aware of where our government’s priorities are. It was of critical importance to the government to issue billions to banks who dealt in unscrupulous practices. It was of critical importance to give millions to failing private auto makers, who aren’t doing any better today. But its just not that important to help sick people.
January 13, 2010 at 5:11 am
Obamacare thus far is making me and millions of other Americans sick. The Washington D.C.B.S. that they are attempting to forcefeed down our throats is making us gag.
Where is the transparency in the process? Why isn’t this debate on C-Span as Obama promised in his pre-election speeches time after time? Debates that he said would be bi-partisan. And Obama promised he would bring everyone to the table: the insurance companies, big pharma, healthcare professionals, and regular folks like you and me. And these televised proceedings would allow Americans to decide who was being fair and who was being unfair. None of this is happening! Pelosi expects Americans to buy that they are forced to have secret, closed door meetings on healthcare so that Repubs cannot stop the bill, when we all know DEMS have a SUPER MAJORITY. The Dems find themselves in the position of being able to pass any bill they want to, and haven’t they passed some doozies so far? But what are they cobbling together now, in there exclusive secret meetings, a healthcare bill that stinks so bad that the members of their own party refuse to vote for it – unless they are bribed to do so? Plus, they are planning to use our tax dollars to do the bribing!!! Talk about rubbing salt into a wound!
And when I see Pelosi or Reid come out and tell us without blinking(must be the botox – and don’t you love that they exempted elective plastic surgery from taxes in the healthcare bill-and I was so worried about that – NOT.) that they are writing the bill without Repubs because they have no ideas. Well I beg to differ…I unlike Nancy & Harry have been listening to what Repubs have to say too and I like several of their ideas such as…
1. First and foremost tort reform. I remember being shocked when my wonderful gyn/ob told me my daughter was the last baby she would deliver as she was disgusted by the price of malpractice insurance necessitated by frivolous lawsuits that were not thrown out immediately but were settled for outrageous sums to get rid of them, or when undeserving patients were awarded outsized sums of money by juries that thought innocence or guilt didn’t matter, they just saw it as giving money to somebody from an insurance company/and or a doctor who they figured were rich and should have plenty of money. But what these outsized or undeserved settlements/or awards actually did was drive up the price of healthcare, because the expense of lawsuits fueled by greedy lawyer mentality were eventually passed onto consumers. And the worst part of greedy lawyer mentality is when it results in clients who actually did deserve and need the money from a malpractice suit being left with a paltry sum after greedy law firms skim the cream of the settlement leaving a disabled person with little to show for their lawsuit. Term it legal robbery.
2. Allow all insurance companies to compete for business in all states. More competition drives down prices and makes companies more creative in offering benefit packages.
3. Making it illegal for any health insurance company to drop or deny coverage to any person regardless of preexisting condition(s).
4. Allow all Americans to have interest bearing medical accounts funded with pre-tax dollars, without a requirement demanding they be spent at year’s end but could also rollover year after year until needed for medical expenses.
5. More scholarship/grant $$$ for academically sound students entering medicine, with financial incentives for them to spend one or two years working in healthcare clinics after graduation. This would solve several problems at once. It would 1. make it more affordable for students to choose medicine as a career; 2. thus creating more doctors/physician’s assistants/nurses per capita; 3. and would also bring down the costs down for health clinics. A win-win scenario! And there’s more but I am well past my bedtime now. Does that mean I love everything the Repubs come up with? No, but it does mean that unlike party talking heads I more interested in what they are really doing for real Americans, rather than being interested in them building a larger power base for their party. I am interested in people of every party, color, religion, and creed in sharing, pooling, and gleaning the best ideas for healthcare reform to benefit the people of America.
And put it on C-Span Barack/Nancy/Harry! Your treatment of the American public has been at best condescending, at worst insulting. Most of us care what is happening with this issue, and our representatives owe us the common decency and the respect we should be getting as the people who were responsible for putting them in their high and mighty positions. And I am a voter who is not afraid to vote them off their high horse, if they think they are too high up to listen to the little people.
January 13, 2010 at 5:47 pm
Like so many other important issues in Washington, health care reform has been reduced to partisan gamesmanship. It’s sad.
January 13, 2010 at 7:38 pm
I’m in the same boat as you, Chana. The bill isn’t perfect but it’s better than what we have now.
I give Pres. Obama props for getting it this far, but we’ve got to keep the pressure on our congresspeople to get it done.