Interestingly and tellingly on the important issue of healthcare insurance reform our president chose to stay above the fray when he had lots of time, a super majority in the congress, a real reform bill with the public option in it and a mandate from the folk to reform healthcare insurance.
Now a year later, a narrow margin even with reconciliation, a riled folk in no mood to suffer fools especially the lackluster ones in congress, almost nothing worth passing in the bill and no public option and an evaporating mandate the president decides to go for it. I’m not buying it. This is the ploy, the tack experienced politicians who want to defeat a measure have used forever.
Done correctly it appears to the folk the president is fighting to have a law passed. While it is true---it’s true only after having already worked to kill any iteration of it worth passing.
For the past year the insurance industry has poured millions of dollars into the effort to defeat any chance of meaningful healthcare insurance reform that might lead to universal healthcare for millions of uninsured Americans. Six lobbyists for every member of congress continually work the will of the insurance industry as they have for a century or more.
San Antonio is perennially in the fat city list. Obesity leads to many disabling, crippling diseases. Those range from diabetes and hypertension to kidney failure and heart attacks. This should be a very relevant issue but none of our elected representatives is talking about it in a city that touts its “medical center.”
Citizens now face a dilemma---we must decide whether it is better to pass the present version of healthcare “reform” and have a watered-down almost meaningless iteration of what it should be or whether at this point it is more critical than ever to insist on the public option. This question was discussed recently on Bill Moyers Journal. Bill’s guests are informed and engaging.
Wendell Potter and Doctor Marcia Angell provide two views on the issue of healthcare insurance reform even as time runs out for any chance of meaningful reform.
Wendell Potter left his successful career as the head of Public Relations for CIGNA, one of the nation's largest insurers, and decided to speak out against the industry after attending “a "health care expedition," a makeshift health clinic set up at a fairgrounds, and he tells Bill Moyers, "It was absolutely stunning. When I walked through the fairground gates, I saw hundreds of people [yes Americans] lined up, in the rain. It was raining that day. Lined up, waiting to get care, in animal stalls. Animal stalls."
Doctor Marcia Angell is “currently serving as a senior lecturer in the department of social medicine at Harvard Medical School, Dr. Angell has devoted her life to researching, writing and speaking on topics incorporating medical ethics, health policy, the nature of medical evidence, the interface of medicine and the law, and end-of-life care.”
Whichever side of the issue you are on become informed. Give a damn about your fellow Americans---documented or not care to do good to “promote the general welfare”---like it says in the preamble to our Constitution. Besides, it makes for good public policy. Keep in mind that documentation doesn’t immunize anyone from anything.
Dump the current healthcare bill 1 of 2
Dump the current healthcare bill 2 of 2
Bill Moyers: Healthcare Insurance Reform: Doctor Marcia Angell
Corporate profits before patients?
Health insurance reform reality check
Wendell Potter on Profits Before Patients
Texans sorely lacking health care insurance
What does the "public" in "public option" really mean?
2009 Fattest Cities in America
More than 1 in 4 in Texas lack health insurance
Money-Driven Medicine
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