Health care: The end game’s end game
March 18, 2010Jon Brooks Comments Off
When I was a kid, I once stumbled upon the movie The Ten Commandments on TV. Exposed mostly to cartoons and sit-coms, I sat there in bleary-eyed awe as the 3 hr 40 minute film just kept on going and going and going. Characters disappeared, story arcs rose and resolved, and the thing still wouldn’t end. By the time Moses parted the Red Sea, I half-believed that this was the only movie ever made that went on forever; that I could go to bed, flip on the TV the next morning, and there would be Yul Brynner, eating an Egyptian breakfast while fulminating about that damn Moses.
That’s a little how I feel about the drive for a health care bill. Rationally, I know it is going to climax one way or the other, but there’s also a part of me that thinks it’s never going to end.
Not quite a year ago, on another project, I remember writing that we were approaching the legislative “end game.” Hah! Not quite. First, we had to suffer through thousands of headlines involving Max Baucus, Olympia Snowe, Nancy Pelosi, the public option, death panels, tea parties, town hall tirades, Bart Stupak, the abortion issue, Ben Nelson, the Nebraska giveaway, the Medicare compromise, Joe Lieberman and the death of the Medicare compromise, Scott Brown and the Massachussetts Democratic smackdown, the reconciliation controversy, and dozens of Barack Obama campaign-style events, as he desperately tried to lead his followers to the promised land of enacting a bill that many observers think will make or break his presidency.
But now, it appears that we are genuinely approaching a finale that will resolve the issue one way or the other. AP wrote on Thursday:
The Democrats’ drive took on a growing sense of inevitability, picking up endorsements Wednesday from a longtime liberal holdout and from a retired Roman Catholic bishop and nuns who broke with church leaders over the bill’s abortion provisions. Leaders appeared increasingly confident of getting the 216 votes they need to pass the bill.
Well, if there’s one thing we’ve learned in the past year when it comes to this topic, the word “inevitability” has without fail proven to be the wrong description. Meaning: “It aint’ over till it’s over.”
Here’s some commentary from Washington Post and New York Times readers on the impending vote:
User responses on Ezra Klein’s blog on the Washington Post:
Hurray! We are so close to passing something no one understands, that’ll cost billions and won’t do anything to fix health care! Hurray!!!! But we were promised Unicorns. And Skittles. Lots of ‘em.
————————————————————————————————————–
Forget about all the massive improvements that this legislation will bring to healthcare for Americans. Just think of it as the biggest deficit reduction bill in history. This is even bigger than Clinton overcoming the objections of every Republican in Congress to set this country’s fiscal policy back on a responsible track in 1993 following 12 years of profligate Reagan-Bush spending. And the ONLY new taxes it includes are for union fat cats whose insurance policies cost nearly $30k per year.
————————————————————————————————————–
If this bill does pass, it will be an aberration — a rare exception to the continuing trend of Democratic gutlessness. (And I say this as a Dem who WISHES we had a few more spines on the Hill.)
————————————————————————————————————–
When you look at the primary items in this bill, it’s a no-brainer to vote ‘yes’. Having said that, the amount of lobbying money by insurance companies and laughable reporting by media led to this fiasco. Some are rightfully afraid to speak or take a step. The courageous will do the right thing and pass this legislation. I’ve worked with many in Congress, the Senate and the current Administration over the years. My guess is there is a 95% probability it will pass.
Probably 2% of Americans can correctly identify what is in the bill. I don’t fault the other 98%. The BS and politics affixed to healthcare reform is mind-boggling. I’m a pragmatist and realist. This bill is not perfect, but the economy cannot sustain our current healthcare system. Faux News keeps repeating that it’s 1/6 of the U.S. Economy. True, but the Federal Government is 90% of their business. We already have socialized medicine in this country. We are just paying way too much for it.
————————————————————————————————————–
From the New York Times Health Care Conversations site:Ms.Pelosi , what part of “Political Suicide” don’t YOU Understand. This FORCED implementation of Health Care Reform is a direct plan established by Lenin Stalin, Hitler and the remainder of the COMMUNISTIC MANIFESTO. Your policies are those of James Jones in Ghana. Drink The KoolAid , My Children…this tabloid won’t post this note as they are “part” of this grand fraud, against the Real Citizens of The United States Of FREE America …
————————————————————————————————————–
I hope the criminals in Washingto realize that by bending all of the rules that our Constitution established they will be held accountable in the next election. Anyone who votes for ‘deeming’ and ‘reconciliation’ measures should be run out of Washington and made to work for a living. Health care is a mess, but living in a country with a Government you can’t trust to represent the People is worse. God help us.
————————————————————————————————————–
This could all be accomplished a lot easier and a lot cheaper by simply expanding existing programs to include all the uninsured and illegal aliens who are supposedly, but not, costing us so much. Expand Medicare to include retired people over age 55, put Medicaid in conjunction with Unemployment Insurance…Oh! Wait! We can’t do the simple fixes, because, the MEDICAL ESTABLISHMENT won’t let us! American doctors like being the most highly paid professionals in the world! Why else would so many of them come here for training and then NOT RETURN to their country of origin? All these proposals have been floated before and defeated… in Congress… because the AMA pays for their election campaigns…
————————————————————————————————————–
I commend the President for trying to correct a perceived inequity in our society, but his solution only hurts the majority. It hurts those Americans who work hard, pay taxes and are struggling to support their families…
President Obama’s support of this legislation shows that he does not care who he hurts. There is actually a word that describes this betrayal of the American people. It is specifically identified in the US Constitution as grounds for impreachment.
————————————————————————————————————–
As Ralph Nader outlined today, it’s the same old same old. There’s nothing new here.
• legislation doesn’t kick in until 2014
• students can stay on their parents’ insurance policy until they’re twenty-six
• 180,000 Americans will die between now and 2014 before any coverage expands
• shovels hundreds and billions of dollars of taxpayer money into the worst corporations who’ve created this problem
• doesn’t require many contractual accountabilities and other accountabilities for people who are denied healthcare in this continuing pay-or-die system that is the disgrace of the Western world
• a bonanza for drug companies
• doesn’t require government to negotiate volume discounts
• allows new biologic drugs under patent to fight off generic competition
• doesn’t allow reimportation from countries like Canada to keep prices down
• no public choice or public option to keep prices down
• allows giant insurance companies to concentrate more power in violation of antitrust laws
• doesn’t safeguard the states from the litigation that’s facing Pennsylvania and California, that are now trying single payerIt’s time to vote out anyone who supports this failure of a bill. Once again, the real losers are the American public, whose “representatives” have given up on them in favor of the million-dollar-toting lobbyists who swarm the Capitol buying votes and capping any real reform and legislation.
————————————————————————————————————–
I am a conservative who believes it is obscene that a country as rich as ours does not have universal health care. I believe in being fiscally responsible, but I also believe we all have a greater responsibility to provide at least basic health care plan for every citizen…This plan is at least an attempt to provide health care to every citizen, and my hope is that over time we will fix the problems with the current plan.
————————————————————————————————————–
If this passes:
1) I get to cancel my insurance.
2) I will negotiate higher pay in lieu of health insurance with my company.
3) I won’t ever be denied for a pre-existing condition.
4) I will save thousands of dollars every year because the penalty is less than my family’s insurance premiums or out of pocket costs for shots and check-ups.
5) If I need insurance, I will go get it. (see #3)Thank you Dems and liberals.
