Health Reform Is Making Me Sick

OK, I am now officially LOST in the debate over Health Care reform.

My guess is that you are too.

In fact, it has gotten so bad that I cannot even interpret TV ads for and against as being from any particular group. Is that one being paid for by the Republicans, the Insurance companies or progressive Democrats? Who knows?

The bill being batted around in the Senate hardly resembles anything that it’s supporters originally proposed. In fact, no one really knows for certain what will happen, even though the CBO (Congressional Budget Office) says it will have a net positive impact on the deficit, actually reducing it.

Of course, what we don’t know is the effect on COSTS to families. The addition of 30 million uninsured to the ranks of “now covered” is certainly a positive, as is the moratorium on exclusion due to pre-existing conditions.

What isn’t so clear is the cost to patients who have the so-called “high risk factors”. For instance, if someone has diabetes, the opponents to the bill say that insurance companies have no limits imposed on the rates they could—and would charge these patients. What good is being accepted by the insurance companies for coverage if you cannot afford it? Have we handed the insurance companies 30 million new customers with no constraints or competitive pressure for them to keep premiums down?

The public option is now OUT—perhaps removing the incentive to compete that would keep costs down. Buy-in to Medicare is also gone. What is left of the plan that Democrats originally embraced?

Check out this clever video “overview” of the issue—despite being produced by an insurance company, it at least “seems” like an objective primer:




http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KfZfgkX6uEk

Americans who elected President Obama largely on the belief that sweeping reform would occur are now becoming some of the biggest critics of the seemingly one-sided compromises.

When Howard Dean and Rush Limbaugh are in agreement on health care, there is a SERIOUS problem. One gets the feeling that the President wants something to sign, ANY bill that will allow him to claim “victory”. However, those is his own party have been increasingly critical of the bill—and his perceived lack of participation in the process by allowing Congress to battle it out without some arm-twisting from the Executive Branch is now being viewed as a vacuum in leadership.

One of the more interesting comments I have heard goes something like this:

The President has truly attempted to have Health Care Reform be perceived as a bi-partisan product. This may be why he left things largely to Congress. The stark truth is that no matter WHAT bill became law, Republicans would attack it unmercifully. As such, with regard to political reality, he was in a no win situation with the Republicans. Nevertheless, the majority party Democrats have increasingly compromised the bill with concessions to the minority party—a party that some believe has NO DESIRE to bargain in good faith anyway. As a group, Republicans would rather see the bill-any bill—go down to defeat. The positive effects politically (demonstrating even a majority of Democrats cannot govern) are too enticing, not to mention the delight of the health insurance lobby that has strangled health care reform for generations. This “death by a thousand paper cuts” effect has now created a rift with progressive Democrats.

So, the right is against the President and the bill. The far Left is deeply dissatisfied. And the Independents are already heading for the doors.

The fair question to ask then, is this: With a Democratic majority—and the process of reconciliation (the so-called “nuclear option”) available, not to mention the power of the President and his office, why doesn’t Obama simply ramrod the bill through Congress?

Don’t get me started about Joe Leiberman---if ONE man can bring this entire process down, we have a huge issue with the way this legislation has been handled.

I still don’t know where I stand, since there are arguments-plausible on both sides—as to what the effects of the current bill will be. Who the hell knows?

I do know that a bad bill IS worse than no bill—and we better be sure that whatever happens, we adhere to the Hippocratic oath of “first, do no harm”

President Obama has staked his presidency on this legislation. Failure to lead a bill that can unite his own party may make his stay in the White House a one term affair.


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