Sad to say not much time tonight for the blog… but we can’t ignore the health care reform issues of the day. So here are a few thoughts.
Pundits abound who tell us that Congress is destined to pass a health care reform bill before Christmas, thanks to the tireless efforts of Senator Max Baucus and the incredible courage of Senator Olympia Snowe. The Finance Committee bill is held up as the model for the final version Harry Reid and company will present to the entire Senate, and negotiate in conference with the House.
The biggest complaint we hear, from diverse perspectives we might note, is that the “Baucus Bill” won’t significantly reduce costs of health care, and thus might accomplish a few good things, but won’t survive for more than a year or two.
We must agree. Without a public option, this plan will not reduce costs. Read some of our previous blogs, and you’ll learn why. The insurance companies will not fail to live up to our criticism and raise premiums and inflate care costs. The tax burden will increase, as will private plan premiums. In a few years, we will all recognize the failure as millions more can’t afford insurance and get fined $1,500 for that privilege, and the rest of us sell our RVs and time-shares and desperately seek a second job to afford coverage. And the deficit will continue to climb.
Republicans will say it was because government can’t do anything right. Democrats will say it’s because we didn’t go far enough with our reforms. The people will be screwed again, and no one will have a better idea that we didn’t already reject this time around.
As Senator Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota pointed out, the states with the best health care have the lowest costs. Improve quality, you reduce costs. That HAS to be part of the legislation. And what could be the biggest first step to that than a strong public option that rewards quality and draws Americans to it.
Just read some of the House bills that promote REAL reform. They make sense. They will work. Please please please write to your Congressmen and Senators and tell them not to sell out.
And ultimately, a word about Colin Powell’s remarks from 2007 replayed on Keith Olberman’s Countdown on MSNBC. He warned us about the “terror-industrial complex.” Those of you who are old enough, or actually study history, will know that this is a play on the words of former President Dwight D. Eisenhower. A Republican. As he left office in 1961, he warned (apparently unheeded) of the “military industrial complex.”
Powell opined that if we aren’t careful, we will go well beyond appropriate funding our anti-terror efforts. We will let the folks who make so much money “fighting terrorism” impinge upon our freedom and way of life.
How did we all miss this story back in 2007? He was absolutely right, and it has absolutely happened. Just read the Patriot Act. Just ask the people who say we can’t afford to reform health care because we have to balance the budget without touching the money we spend on fighting “terror”.
I just wish Colin Powell had had the courage to speak out beyond a college campus. I wish the press had encouraged him. But that was not to be…
JM
Showing posts with label health insurance. Show all posts
Showing posts with label health insurance. Show all posts
Thursday, October 15, 2009
Thursday, October 8, 2009
Buckle Up America: It’s Go Time for Health Insurers
Dare we dream? It’s beginning to look as if there’s been enough of a broad-based backlash against Washington’s inaction or indifference when it comes to meaningful Health Care Reform that our politicians are actually starting to take notice! We always knew that our House Reps and Senators could be gotten to. The only question was whether their respective ‘G’ spots were more susceptible to the lure of money or the need for votes.
The safe bet would be both, and although just how much each individual politician is influenced by either one or the other has yet to be determined, it would appear that most of them are now well aware of a rising level of dissent…on Main Street and beyond. The majority of Americans…65% and counting…are making it known that they want a public insurance option included in any Health Care bill that’s passed, and that demand is being echoed by more and more doctors and other health sector professionals every day.
It seems like the tide may finally be turning. The health insurance industry is being increasingly recognized and universally criticized for what it is…a corrupt, greedy, selfish, unfeeling profit center that cares only about its bottom line and nothing about its customers. The rest of the health sector concerns, and not an insignificant number of politicians, have begun distancing themselves from the insurers… leaving them isolated on an island by themselves so as to avoid being hit by shrapnel from the incoming bombs of outrage and grenades of discontent.
Since discussion concerning Health Care Reform was once again brought to the front burner in Washington earlier this year, the health insurance industry and their minions have been ‘wagging the dog’ in terms of the debate. A never-ending flood of fear-inspiring innuendo and outright lies, put forth in many cases by people and organizations who should know better, have kept supporters of meaningful reform consistently on the defensive. But with momentum starting to shift perceptibly in this battle, expect the insurers to lower the level of discourse and ethics even further.
So what’s next you ask? Well, as the legendary Al Jolson once said, “you ain’t seen nothin’ yet”. If you think that the health insurance conglomerates, their lobbyists, and the media mouthpieces and political apologists that support them and are supported by them, will stand by and watch the sun set on this gravy train, you’d better give your head a shake. To paraphrase an old hockey adage, the gloves are about to come off.
Through the ill-advised largesse of our lawmakers, up until now health insurers have been granted a license to print money…or perhaps steal would be a more apt description of what they’ve been allowed to do for all these years. They’ve been operating without effective oversight for so long that when something threatens to impact their bloated bottom line…something such as a public insurance option designed to, oh, let’s say keep them honest…they predictably react with snarling desperation, like any cornered animal would in those circumstances.
That means we shouldn’t be surprised by anything they say or do, or that’s said and done on their behalf, in the coming weeks. There’s likely nothing they won’t try in their effort to retain unfettered, Washington-condoned access to our wallets and bank accounts. The salvos they’ve fired so far…death panels, socialism, communism, fascism, birthers, tea-baggers, government controlled, etc., etc.…will pale in comparison to what lies ahead as this transcendent battle for meaningful Health Care Reform reaches its climax.
A recent Quinnipiac poll suggested that fixing our economy is the single most important thing Americans have to deal with…but understand this! If we can find the will to reform and control the health insurance industry, fixing the economy is doable. Without meaningful Health Care Reform though, more specifically without health insurance reform, our economy will continue spiraling downward. It’s that simple.
SC
The safe bet would be both, and although just how much each individual politician is influenced by either one or the other has yet to be determined, it would appear that most of them are now well aware of a rising level of dissent…on Main Street and beyond. The majority of Americans…65% and counting…are making it known that they want a public insurance option included in any Health Care bill that’s passed, and that demand is being echoed by more and more doctors and other health sector professionals every day.
It seems like the tide may finally be turning. The health insurance industry is being increasingly recognized and universally criticized for what it is…a corrupt, greedy, selfish, unfeeling profit center that cares only about its bottom line and nothing about its customers. The rest of the health sector concerns, and not an insignificant number of politicians, have begun distancing themselves from the insurers… leaving them isolated on an island by themselves so as to avoid being hit by shrapnel from the incoming bombs of outrage and grenades of discontent.
Since discussion concerning Health Care Reform was once again brought to the front burner in Washington earlier this year, the health insurance industry and their minions have been ‘wagging the dog’ in terms of the debate. A never-ending flood of fear-inspiring innuendo and outright lies, put forth in many cases by people and organizations who should know better, have kept supporters of meaningful reform consistently on the defensive. But with momentum starting to shift perceptibly in this battle, expect the insurers to lower the level of discourse and ethics even further.
So what’s next you ask? Well, as the legendary Al Jolson once said, “you ain’t seen nothin’ yet”. If you think that the health insurance conglomerates, their lobbyists, and the media mouthpieces and political apologists that support them and are supported by them, will stand by and watch the sun set on this gravy train, you’d better give your head a shake. To paraphrase an old hockey adage, the gloves are about to come off.
Through the ill-advised largesse of our lawmakers, up until now health insurers have been granted a license to print money…or perhaps steal would be a more apt description of what they’ve been allowed to do for all these years. They’ve been operating without effective oversight for so long that when something threatens to impact their bloated bottom line…something such as a public insurance option designed to, oh, let’s say keep them honest…they predictably react with snarling desperation, like any cornered animal would in those circumstances.
That means we shouldn’t be surprised by anything they say or do, or that’s said and done on their behalf, in the coming weeks. There’s likely nothing they won’t try in their effort to retain unfettered, Washington-condoned access to our wallets and bank accounts. The salvos they’ve fired so far…death panels, socialism, communism, fascism, birthers, tea-baggers, government controlled, etc., etc.…will pale in comparison to what lies ahead as this transcendent battle for meaningful Health Care Reform reaches its climax.
A recent Quinnipiac poll suggested that fixing our economy is the single most important thing Americans have to deal with…but understand this! If we can find the will to reform and control the health insurance industry, fixing the economy is doable. Without meaningful Health Care Reform though, more specifically without health insurance reform, our economy will continue spiraling downward. It’s that simple.
SC
Wednesday, October 7, 2009
Don't Do It
No. We cannot afford to have a health care reform bill that is merely lip service.
Literally. We can’t afford it.
Senators, congressmen, please vote down any bill that doesn’t have, at the very least, a fully operational public option, not a trigger option, not a co-op. Though we are completely convinced that reform is essential to a healthy future for our country, both people and economy, we also understand that the “reforms” that mandate individuals to purchase an insurance policy from the private industry, without significant cost control mechanisms, is a recipe for disaster.
Follow my logic. The Finance Committee’s bill offers a bunch of “reforms” but no constraints on profits, and no publicly run insurance option.
Eliminating “pre-existing conditions” is a moral imperative. But without removing the “rating” – inflated premiums – that are charged, the cost of such insurance will be out of reach of most of the 47 million currently uninsured. (We personally would have to pay more than $2000 per month right now, even if they exclude coverage for our pre-existing conditions.)
That would lead to subsidies by the federal government (or, as some amendments propose, state governments) to try to make it affordable. Tax dollars. That would go directly to private insurance companies, who are at record profit levels today.
The Baucus plan doesn’t require employers to provide insurance, and it would fine anyone who doesn’t purchase a private plan. The latest number we saw is $1,500 a year. What would they get for that? Nothing. (Oh, that’s right – charity, or the opportunity to sell everything they own, spend it on treatment, then sign up for a government program like Medicaid - this advice from those bleeding heart Republicans.)
And who would get the $1,500? The government, so they can forward it to the private insurance companies, to help them pay for covering all those sick people with pre-existing conditions.
Despite the Congressional Budget Office’s estimates that this bill will reduce the deficit, it will surely lead to continuing escalation in the cost of insurance for individuals.
Whose costs are we trying to reduce? The individuals? The taxpayers? Aren’t they the same people? Ah, there’s the rub. Corporations are taxpayers, too. They’re also currently footing the bill for most American’s health insurance premiums.
Without a serious mechanism to contain the amount of money we pay to health care service providers, and cut back the overhead of insurance companies (currently at more than 25%, compared to Medicare at 3%), the number of dollars spent on “health care” will climb. If individuals and employers have to keep up with increasing premiums (or pay fines), and co-pays go up, out-of-pocket maximums go up, we will be paying out more than the current 1/6th of our GDP. It may not build up the government’s deficit, but it will surely build up personal deficit for each of us individually.
So how you do you contain costs? How do you do it at home? Discipline. Efficiency. Practicality. Shopping around.
The current system, and the “reformed” system without a public option, doesn’t encourage these things. When the cost of an ultrasound goes up, insurance companies just charge more for premiums, and deny any claims they can get away with. Those of us with “good” health insurance plans don’t see or appreciate the actual costs of the care they receive. As Senator Schumer pointed out recently, if a doctor says ‘Hmmm, I don’t think it’s really necessary, but I suppose we could do a CT scan’, neither the patient nor the doctor has a second thought about what it costs because they don’t pay it directly. So unnecessary tests are done, and the overall cost goes up.
Medicare, the only “public option” in existence right now, uses all those cost containment principles, very effectively. But with the private insurers letting costs creep up, Medicare has to keep increasing its payment rates, too, or providers will drop out of participation. So individuals costs go up, and government costs go up.
When the costs strangle our economy, voters will go crazy and Republicans will capitalize on that by claiming the “reforms” were to blame, and we can kiss true reform goodbye. Congress will tinker some more as our economy turns us into a third-world debtor nation.
We have three choices – 1) make it illegal for insurance companies to make profits and put severe regulations on their operations, or 2) maintain more of a free market and make them compete with a non-profit public option to force prices down, or 3) expand our successful Medicare program to all Americans.
Since the Dems took 3) off the table before they even started negotiating, we don’t have any hope of that one. Choice 1) would take an act of God, not just an act of Congress.
The public option has to be big enough, and strong enough, to have the cost-containing impact we need. If, as some Republicans are crying these days, it would be so good people would leave private insurance companies in droves and head to the public option, destroying the profitable industry, we ask: what is your priority? Affordable and great health care for all, or profits to a heartless industry that controls our very lives?
Quoting Wil Rogers, "Even if you are on the right track you will get run over if you just sit there."
Congress, if some of you don’t have the heart and balls to put real health care reform into play, then show your true selves to the electorate and let us all show you what we think.
JM
Literally. We can’t afford it.
Senators, congressmen, please vote down any bill that doesn’t have, at the very least, a fully operational public option, not a trigger option, not a co-op. Though we are completely convinced that reform is essential to a healthy future for our country, both people and economy, we also understand that the “reforms” that mandate individuals to purchase an insurance policy from the private industry, without significant cost control mechanisms, is a recipe for disaster.
Follow my logic. The Finance Committee’s bill offers a bunch of “reforms” but no constraints on profits, and no publicly run insurance option.
Eliminating “pre-existing conditions” is a moral imperative. But without removing the “rating” – inflated premiums – that are charged, the cost of such insurance will be out of reach of most of the 47 million currently uninsured. (We personally would have to pay more than $2000 per month right now, even if they exclude coverage for our pre-existing conditions.)
That would lead to subsidies by the federal government (or, as some amendments propose, state governments) to try to make it affordable. Tax dollars. That would go directly to private insurance companies, who are at record profit levels today.
The Baucus plan doesn’t require employers to provide insurance, and it would fine anyone who doesn’t purchase a private plan. The latest number we saw is $1,500 a year. What would they get for that? Nothing. (Oh, that’s right – charity, or the opportunity to sell everything they own, spend it on treatment, then sign up for a government program like Medicaid - this advice from those bleeding heart Republicans.)
And who would get the $1,500? The government, so they can forward it to the private insurance companies, to help them pay for covering all those sick people with pre-existing conditions.
Despite the Congressional Budget Office’s estimates that this bill will reduce the deficit, it will surely lead to continuing escalation in the cost of insurance for individuals.
Whose costs are we trying to reduce? The individuals? The taxpayers? Aren’t they the same people? Ah, there’s the rub. Corporations are taxpayers, too. They’re also currently footing the bill for most American’s health insurance premiums.
Without a serious mechanism to contain the amount of money we pay to health care service providers, and cut back the overhead of insurance companies (currently at more than 25%, compared to Medicare at 3%), the number of dollars spent on “health care” will climb. If individuals and employers have to keep up with increasing premiums (or pay fines), and co-pays go up, out-of-pocket maximums go up, we will be paying out more than the current 1/6th of our GDP. It may not build up the government’s deficit, but it will surely build up personal deficit for each of us individually.
So how you do you contain costs? How do you do it at home? Discipline. Efficiency. Practicality. Shopping around.
The current system, and the “reformed” system without a public option, doesn’t encourage these things. When the cost of an ultrasound goes up, insurance companies just charge more for premiums, and deny any claims they can get away with. Those of us with “good” health insurance plans don’t see or appreciate the actual costs of the care they receive. As Senator Schumer pointed out recently, if a doctor says ‘Hmmm, I don’t think it’s really necessary, but I suppose we could do a CT scan’, neither the patient nor the doctor has a second thought about what it costs because they don’t pay it directly. So unnecessary tests are done, and the overall cost goes up.
Medicare, the only “public option” in existence right now, uses all those cost containment principles, very effectively. But with the private insurers letting costs creep up, Medicare has to keep increasing its payment rates, too, or providers will drop out of participation. So individuals costs go up, and government costs go up.
When the costs strangle our economy, voters will go crazy and Republicans will capitalize on that by claiming the “reforms” were to blame, and we can kiss true reform goodbye. Congress will tinker some more as our economy turns us into a third-world debtor nation.
We have three choices – 1) make it illegal for insurance companies to make profits and put severe regulations on their operations, or 2) maintain more of a free market and make them compete with a non-profit public option to force prices down, or 3) expand our successful Medicare program to all Americans.
Since the Dems took 3) off the table before they even started negotiating, we don’t have any hope of that one. Choice 1) would take an act of God, not just an act of Congress.
The public option has to be big enough, and strong enough, to have the cost-containing impact we need. If, as some Republicans are crying these days, it would be so good people would leave private insurance companies in droves and head to the public option, destroying the profitable industry, we ask: what is your priority? Affordable and great health care for all, or profits to a heartless industry that controls our very lives?
Quoting Wil Rogers, "Even if you are on the right track you will get run over if you just sit there."
Congress, if some of you don’t have the heart and balls to put real health care reform into play, then show your true selves to the electorate and let us all show you what we think.
JM
Thursday, August 20, 2009
The Low Lowdown:
Little Pricks, Big Dicks, and Looking Out for Number One
Remember WAY BACK when wearing a t-shirt or carrying a sign with any sort of anti-George Bush sentiment on it would, at the least, get you barred from being anywhere within TV camera range of any Bush event, or, at the worst, get you arrested. Wow, how times have changed…and in this case, not for the better. Look what we’ve come to now!
Every time we see one of these gun-toting cretins displaying their manhood at a Town Hall Meeting on Health Care Reform…either with or without President Obama in attendance…we can’t help but be reminded of a print advertisement we saw in some British publication a few years back. The ad displayed a high-powered sports car…it doesn’t really matter which one…and the gist of it was as follows: “Little Penis?…Have We Got A Car For You!”.
These guys are nothing more than punks, pure and simple. They carry their guns for all to see in an effort to make up for some of the many things that they lack…like maturity, confidence, basic intelligence, and perhaps most of all, genuine toughness. Imagine thinking that it somehow makes you a big man to brandish a loaded gun at a large, public gathering that includes lots of women, children and old people. How pathetic!
They’re the kind of flaccid specimens who would immediately cry for Mom and reach for their weapons at the first sign of any perceived trouble, and it wouldn’t matter to them whether their imagined adversary was armed or not. They’ll shoot their guns first, and then they’ll shoot their mouth off about their second amendment right to have and bear arms. And it’s a slam-dunk that the smaller the pecker, the bigger the gun will be. The ones carrying the AKs to these gatherings are the most pathetic of them all…miserable excuses for men…miserable excuses for human beings.
Speaking of dicks… how about former Republican House Majority Leader DICK Armey, one of the limpest tools of them all. This is the guy who once said that “…God will never let the earth be destroyed by something called global warming”.
Well, the one-time Texas Congressman, now a disgraced yet unapologetic lobbyist, is at his absurd worst again. Now he’s on record as having issued a typically outrageous, lunatic-right ‘Obama as Nazi’ pronouncement about the Swine Flu. Claiming the administration will use fears of a Swine Flu pandemic to sway politicians who have yet to sign on to the President’s Health Care Reform agenda, Armey said, “In September or October there will be a hyped-up outbreak of the Swine Flu which they’ll say is as bad as the Bubonic Plague to scare the bed-wetters to vote for Health Care Reform”.
This is the same DICK Armey who recently had to resign his position as a lobbyist for DLA Piper because of a blatant conflict of interest…and when a raging conservative gets forced out as a lobbyist for drug manufacturers and others with a horse in the Health Care Reform race, you know it had to be blatant! Alas our boy DICK apparently also heads up a conservative advocacy group called, ironically, Freedom Works…the same Freedom Works that was found to have been “encouraging” right-wing activists to “disrupt” Town Hall meetings meant to be forums for discussing Health Care Reform.
“Scare the bed-wetters”. What a guy. What a…DICK!
So let’s step back for a moment and think about who, other than the regular, shameless cast of Republican politicians and health industry mouthpieces, seems to be the most passionately opposed to ANY KIND of meaningful Health Care Reform. First of all, sadly and most predictably, are the loyal legions of Faux News viewers and right-wing radio listeners…the unthinking sheep who unquestioningly devour all the slop that the Sean Hannitys and Glenn Becks and Rush Limbaughs of the world dish up for them…the kind of people Bill O’Reilly would refer to as “pinheads”, were it not for the fact that they’re his core audience.
It would be great to be able to say that that’s the extent of the dissent, but unfortunately that’s not the case…not even close. There’s another, larger group that, as is their wont, speak and act as individuals but are, collectively, both a significant voice and a sad commentary on our society. These are the type…probably good folks when seen under almost any other light…who, when push comes to shove, are ultimately and selfishly only concerned about themselves. And like the sheep, they've been led to believe, or they truly fear, that Health Care Reform is going to affect their own situations negatively.
We all know some of them…the ones who couldn’t give a tinker’s damn that there are almost fifty million uninsured people in America, as long as they have health insurance for themselves and their families…or the ones who are employed in the health care industry, perhaps selling health insurance. Almost invariably they have their health insurance provided for them and therefore don’t have any idea what it means to face skyrocketing premiums or policy exclusions. Or they’re responsible for their own health insurance but have never had to access their coverage to pay for any kind of catastrophic incident or life-threatening illness that sent their premiums through the roof and ultimately beyond their means.
They can’t fathom premiums so exorbitant that even people with good jobs simply can’t afford them. They have no idea what it feels like to have to self-diagnose…or to be forced to decide whether or not their child is sick enough to justify a trip to the doctor or the emergency room because they know that their deductible hasn’t yet been met and they really can’t afford it. They’ve never had to choose between their own child’s health or buying groceries to feed the family. They’ve never faced bankruptcy because of a mountain of unpaid medical bills that resulted from either a loss of or inadequate coverage.
These are not bad people. They’re our friends and neighbors and, in many cases, our relatives… and sadly, they just don’t understand. They can’t, and unfortunately they never will, unless they are faced themselves with the prospect of the same kind of personal financial disasters that so many American families have already experienced…and what so many more will most assuredly be confronted with until this mess that is our current Health Care System is finally fixed.
That’s why it’s so vitally important that the Democrats don’t give up on meaningful Health Care Reform. And that's why, if they continue to waiver, we have to remind them in no uncertain terms, why we elected them!
SC
Remember WAY BACK when wearing a t-shirt or carrying a sign with any sort of anti-George Bush sentiment on it would, at the least, get you barred from being anywhere within TV camera range of any Bush event, or, at the worst, get you arrested. Wow, how times have changed…and in this case, not for the better. Look what we’ve come to now!
Every time we see one of these gun-toting cretins displaying their manhood at a Town Hall Meeting on Health Care Reform…either with or without President Obama in attendance…we can’t help but be reminded of a print advertisement we saw in some British publication a few years back. The ad displayed a high-powered sports car…it doesn’t really matter which one…and the gist of it was as follows: “Little Penis?…Have We Got A Car For You!”.
These guys are nothing more than punks, pure and simple. They carry their guns for all to see in an effort to make up for some of the many things that they lack…like maturity, confidence, basic intelligence, and perhaps most of all, genuine toughness. Imagine thinking that it somehow makes you a big man to brandish a loaded gun at a large, public gathering that includes lots of women, children and old people. How pathetic!
They’re the kind of flaccid specimens who would immediately cry for Mom and reach for their weapons at the first sign of any perceived trouble, and it wouldn’t matter to them whether their imagined adversary was armed or not. They’ll shoot their guns first, and then they’ll shoot their mouth off about their second amendment right to have and bear arms. And it’s a slam-dunk that the smaller the pecker, the bigger the gun will be. The ones carrying the AKs to these gatherings are the most pathetic of them all…miserable excuses for men…miserable excuses for human beings.
Speaking of dicks… how about former Republican House Majority Leader DICK Armey, one of the limpest tools of them all. This is the guy who once said that “…God will never let the earth be destroyed by something called global warming”.
Well, the one-time Texas Congressman, now a disgraced yet unapologetic lobbyist, is at his absurd worst again. Now he’s on record as having issued a typically outrageous, lunatic-right ‘Obama as Nazi’ pronouncement about the Swine Flu. Claiming the administration will use fears of a Swine Flu pandemic to sway politicians who have yet to sign on to the President’s Health Care Reform agenda, Armey said, “In September or October there will be a hyped-up outbreak of the Swine Flu which they’ll say is as bad as the Bubonic Plague to scare the bed-wetters to vote for Health Care Reform”.
This is the same DICK Armey who recently had to resign his position as a lobbyist for DLA Piper because of a blatant conflict of interest…and when a raging conservative gets forced out as a lobbyist for drug manufacturers and others with a horse in the Health Care Reform race, you know it had to be blatant! Alas our boy DICK apparently also heads up a conservative advocacy group called, ironically, Freedom Works…the same Freedom Works that was found to have been “encouraging” right-wing activists to “disrupt” Town Hall meetings meant to be forums for discussing Health Care Reform.
“Scare the bed-wetters”. What a guy. What a…DICK!
So let’s step back for a moment and think about who, other than the regular, shameless cast of Republican politicians and health industry mouthpieces, seems to be the most passionately opposed to ANY KIND of meaningful Health Care Reform. First of all, sadly and most predictably, are the loyal legions of Faux News viewers and right-wing radio listeners…the unthinking sheep who unquestioningly devour all the slop that the Sean Hannitys and Glenn Becks and Rush Limbaughs of the world dish up for them…the kind of people Bill O’Reilly would refer to as “pinheads”, were it not for the fact that they’re his core audience.
It would be great to be able to say that that’s the extent of the dissent, but unfortunately that’s not the case…not even close. There’s another, larger group that, as is their wont, speak and act as individuals but are, collectively, both a significant voice and a sad commentary on our society. These are the type…probably good folks when seen under almost any other light…who, when push comes to shove, are ultimately and selfishly only concerned about themselves. And like the sheep, they've been led to believe, or they truly fear, that Health Care Reform is going to affect their own situations negatively.
We all know some of them…the ones who couldn’t give a tinker’s damn that there are almost fifty million uninsured people in America, as long as they have health insurance for themselves and their families…or the ones who are employed in the health care industry, perhaps selling health insurance. Almost invariably they have their health insurance provided for them and therefore don’t have any idea what it means to face skyrocketing premiums or policy exclusions. Or they’re responsible for their own health insurance but have never had to access their coverage to pay for any kind of catastrophic incident or life-threatening illness that sent their premiums through the roof and ultimately beyond their means.
They can’t fathom premiums so exorbitant that even people with good jobs simply can’t afford them. They have no idea what it feels like to have to self-diagnose…or to be forced to decide whether or not their child is sick enough to justify a trip to the doctor or the emergency room because they know that their deductible hasn’t yet been met and they really can’t afford it. They’ve never had to choose between their own child’s health or buying groceries to feed the family. They’ve never faced bankruptcy because of a mountain of unpaid medical bills that resulted from either a loss of or inadequate coverage.
These are not bad people. They’re our friends and neighbors and, in many cases, our relatives… and sadly, they just don’t understand. They can’t, and unfortunately they never will, unless they are faced themselves with the prospect of the same kind of personal financial disasters that so many American families have already experienced…and what so many more will most assuredly be confronted with until this mess that is our current Health Care System is finally fixed.
That’s why it’s so vitally important that the Democrats don’t give up on meaningful Health Care Reform. And that's why, if they continue to waiver, we have to remind them in no uncertain terms, why we elected them!
SC
Wednesday, July 22, 2009
Anticipation…
So what are we looking for from our President’s comments on health care reform this evening?
Will he take on the lies of the right-wing nay-sayers?
Will he capitulate to those who want him to tax health insurance provided by employers?
Will he reassure small businesses that they won't be forced out of business by a requirement for provision of health insurance to employees because there will be affordable options - guaranteed?
Will he specify each and every component he wants to see passed?
Will he explain dollar by dollar how we’ll save money with the reform he’s looking for?
Will he give up important components, like ensuring that EVERYONE is covered?
Will he endorse the Senator from Oregon’s plan to allow an employee to take cash instead of employer coverage, and use the cash to get a plan he prefers?
Will he finally “make it plain” – that without a public option, there’s nothing that will compel private insurance companies to cut premiums by cutting overhead?
Will he show us charts and graphics that demonstrate that we can cut costs by cutting back on unnecessary tests and procedures, but still provide the “best health care in the world”?
Will he back off his time-table, bowing to the notion that 40 years of watching the wheels fall off our health care wagon requires us to spend the next 40 years figuring out what to do about it?
We’ve heard various “experts” insist that some combination of these answers are absolutely essential tonight if the President wants to get his health care reform back on track.
Whatever President Obama tells us this evening, one thing is certain: we’ll all be listening with bated breath. This may be the single most important issue we are facing these days. It is literally life and death for many of us. It could be life and death for our economy, too.
We've started seeing ads purporting to support health care reform sponsored by America's Health Insurance Plans, and Pharmaceutical Researchers and Manufacturers of America. They are surprisingly vague, don't you think? No actual proposals, just the notion that everyone should get coverage, somehow. Oh, with no pre-existing condition exceptions. Somehow.
Polls are showing that public approval for the President’s health care reform proposals is fading, slipping below 50%. Most media pundits are presenting that statistic as if people don’t want to reform our health care system anymore.
But I’d bet dollars to donuts that any slippage is because we want MORE from this reform effort, not less. We don’t approve of the way the Democrats backed away from universal coverage and single payer plans; of the deference paid to those mega-profitable insurance companies; of kowtowing to the elitist American Medical Association; of the sucking-up to PhRMA; of trying to protect Senators and Congresspersons who take millions and millions of dollars from the aforementioned groups.
This blog hasn’t earned an advance copy of the President’s remarks, so we’ll be watching with you. More comments following the press conference.
Jacque
Will he take on the lies of the right-wing nay-sayers?
Will he capitulate to those who want him to tax health insurance provided by employers?
Will he reassure small businesses that they won't be forced out of business by a requirement for provision of health insurance to employees because there will be affordable options - guaranteed?
Will he specify each and every component he wants to see passed?
Will he explain dollar by dollar how we’ll save money with the reform he’s looking for?
Will he give up important components, like ensuring that EVERYONE is covered?
Will he endorse the Senator from Oregon’s plan to allow an employee to take cash instead of employer coverage, and use the cash to get a plan he prefers?
Will he finally “make it plain” – that without a public option, there’s nothing that will compel private insurance companies to cut premiums by cutting overhead?
Will he show us charts and graphics that demonstrate that we can cut costs by cutting back on unnecessary tests and procedures, but still provide the “best health care in the world”?
Will he back off his time-table, bowing to the notion that 40 years of watching the wheels fall off our health care wagon requires us to spend the next 40 years figuring out what to do about it?
We’ve heard various “experts” insist that some combination of these answers are absolutely essential tonight if the President wants to get his health care reform back on track.
Whatever President Obama tells us this evening, one thing is certain: we’ll all be listening with bated breath. This may be the single most important issue we are facing these days. It is literally life and death for many of us. It could be life and death for our economy, too.
We've started seeing ads purporting to support health care reform sponsored by America's Health Insurance Plans, and Pharmaceutical Researchers and Manufacturers of America. They are surprisingly vague, don't you think? No actual proposals, just the notion that everyone should get coverage, somehow. Oh, with no pre-existing condition exceptions. Somehow.
Polls are showing that public approval for the President’s health care reform proposals is fading, slipping below 50%. Most media pundits are presenting that statistic as if people don’t want to reform our health care system anymore.
But I’d bet dollars to donuts that any slippage is because we want MORE from this reform effort, not less. We don’t approve of the way the Democrats backed away from universal coverage and single payer plans; of the deference paid to those mega-profitable insurance companies; of kowtowing to the elitist American Medical Association; of the sucking-up to PhRMA; of trying to protect Senators and Congresspersons who take millions and millions of dollars from the aforementioned groups.
This blog hasn’t earned an advance copy of the President’s remarks, so we’ll be watching with you. More comments following the press conference.
Jacque
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