Well here it is, the mildly-anticipated Health Reform Edition of A Cavalcade of Crazy, better late than never. All right, let’s lay it out: is it finally time for affordable, basic medical care for all on a national scale? I give up. Does the Pope glow in the dark? Of course it’s time. Are there any advanced life forms around here who wouldn’t want the country to provide this for their family if they needed it? Unfortunately so. The final product sure doesn’t resemble that down the stretch, and we’re left to decide if it’s better than no reform at all.
No public option, no single-payer, no Medicare buy-in. Not quite the public-spirited renovation those who voted for change in 2008 expected. Hey Democrats. You have a monopoly in Washington. Start the steamrollers. They won’t do it.
I guess when the party I supported took the Medicare For All model off the program right out of the gate, that should have been a clue, huh? Without that as the objective, does the word reform really apply? What it does do is require insurance companies to cover sick people as well as healthy ones. Take high risk along with the low–what a concept. To complete the package, the bill would also force American citizens, who already pay taxes, to do business with a private market. That should have given everyone pause.
Well, considering that the mass food supply is making everyone fat and sick, I trust the insurance companies are gearing up for a ton of business. Our national health is deteriorating. Too many of us do not look good or feel well.
We are faced with another Hobson’s Choice so typical of American politics. Either accept this flawed bill or get nothing. In fact, there are a few decent elements still left in it. We all want to see everyone insured; there’s people dying out there, you know. Well, actually I thought we wanted everyone to be able to have medical services, preventative care and standard life support without going broke and without regard to class or status. Direct access to the actual health care providers, as it were. The snag wasn’t that people don’t have enough access to insurance agents. It’s like the famous choice of colors from Henry Ford. We all wanted to drive those Model-Ts; too bad they were only offered in black.
It’s reminiscent of the judicial disaster back in January of this year, when five Supreme Court Justices decided in favor of Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission. Justice John Stevens concluded his dissent with the kind of criticism we love here on A Cavalcade of Crazy, the biting kind: “While American democracy is imperfect, few outside the majority of this Court would have thought its flaws included a dearth of corporate money in politics.” The way the writers of the health reform bill see it, the obstacle to universal medical care in the United States is that we’re not writing enough checks to insurance companies. It appears we got worked again, plain and simple.
So, do we support this or not? Is it the overdue, but imperfect start to real reform– Medicare for all– down the road, or is there just as much risk of it being dismantled when the government changes hands again? Most social and economic legislation of this magnitude does evolve over time. This writer was rather enlightened by the development of the Social Security Act of 1935. As of the year 2000, there have been forty-seven additional acts or amendments related to Social Security legislation. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_Security_(United_States) One can only imagine the permutations which await this health reform bill on its way, hopefully, toward a true national provision.
If it makes it to the President’s desk, that is. My guess is it will.
I’ve grown quite weary of the whole health care debate relative to the appropriate role of government. If something so clearly serves the public interest– if it’s a fundamental utility for everyone– I have no problem with the public sector providing it. In fact, we’re better off not leaving things like our physical and mental health in the control of entities whose only concern is making a profit. Our taxes already provide for national defense, local police and fire, library and public education systems, unemployment benefits, mail service, and interstate highways for those endless fleets of Wal-Mart trucks rolling by with American pride to bring us those high-quality Chinese barbecue tongs. The public treasury is ostensibly used to keep our environment clean and food safe to eat. How does health care not fit into this? They spend enough of our money–and borrow boatloads in our name–on far more objectionable plans. Bridges to nowhere and a couple of lethal wars come to recent memory.
No one intends this to be a luxury or remove individual choice, but American citizens are not obliged to keep corporations happy. A health care for all model is only one part of an adequate yet beneficial group of life support systems and safety nets within the larger economic and social structure. As long as we make sure to distribute to wealth a bit more and maintain the system in a healthy balance, there should be the opportunity to build in all classes some discretionary income to spend additionally as they please, for extra medical services, or anything else. Establishing into law a national health plan manifests a long overdue social benefit; it takes away no one’s “right” to seek alternative care. If you want to fly to Mars on your dime to see a specialist about that pimple on your butt, go right ahead.
I’m sick of people storming about over socialism. Remember, our government and market systems exist solely by our design, and they should enable the people to flourish and thrive first; making a profit should come second. There is plenty of room for investment and financial gain. The crypto-Libertarians are getting old, too, crying hand-out every time there is a proposal to include everyone in something positive. Is not a healthy nation a more productive one? If we collectively improve our health we improve our quality of life and our standard of living. It comes down to the false notion promoted by the corporatists–and gobbled up by the misguided and insecure– that “We the people” instead contains the pronoun “I”. It’s the standard battle between those who seek to restrict our participation and access to the political and economic machinery, and those who view that freedom as critical to our nation’s growth and prosperity.
It’s fine to keep tapping us for corporate welfare, though. These same people don’t want to limit everyone’s exposure to the appetite of the military/industrial/banking machine. They don’t mind hooking us up to that siphon; for the war engine it’s to the tune of fifty cents to every dollar. Just so everybody understand this: if you can’t afford to go to the doctor, let’s hope that lump goes away on its own. But when folks have a problem with the Pentagon’s voracious disposition or Wall Street bailouts, too bad. No way to cancel those payments.
There was so much we could have been done with. Here’s a pretty good list: the discrimination in the private health care industry (this is at least addressed in the bill); the free-market variables of adverse selection and moral hazard; the self-righteous and twisted Christian undercurrents, that poverty and sickness are the price you pay for being morally deficient; the mind-boggling sums of money spent on lobbying to defeat or dilute the effort (dollars well spent); the idiots running around screaming America sucks, as an excuse for obstructing any social or economic progress; the burden on employers as health care providers; and the quality of one’s health based on a person’s ability to pay. Give us a legitimate national health system and all that is irrelevant. I was not even imagining perfection right out of the gate, just a real start. Might as well mention now that regardless of what happens, this exercise has shown Democrats to be just as willing to cave in to corporate pressure as the other side. This is a very real worry when they get around to the so-called financial reforms.
I simply don’t understand why my or anyone else’s family in the United States should ever have to worry about getting sick. Look, we should always demand a clean and safe environment and encourage the public to seek healthy choices and lifestyles, but reducing illness from self-induced causes is accomplished through education and marketing, not by access to medical care. There is nothing discriminating about sickness and death. A person’s health has a direct impact on the quality, and in many cases, the continuation of their life, and help should not be based on the size of your bank account. That is capitalism at it’s worst.
I believe the last thing we remember saying before we get that numb feeling in our arm is, I’m sure glad I’ve never had a stroke. My active and fit next-door neighbor was thinking about what good shape he was in before he was diagnosed with lymphatic cancer. Whether you wouldn’t lay off the three-foot long, deep-fried chili-cheese dogs, or you always looked out for your health, only the fuse that was lit when you were born finally reached M80-stage cancer, I don’t care. I don’t care how much money you have either. Hang in there kid, the doctors here will see you without prejudice as soon as they can. When you’re hurt, we’ll try to fix you and when you’re sick, we’ll try to heal you, and it won’t land you in the poor house. This is the best place to be. One day.
In Horse Feathers (1937), Groucho played Dr. Hugo Z. Hackenbush, a veterinarian who masquerades as a doctor in a scheme to keep open a struggling sanitarium. Somehow, that seems like a fitting image.
Reverbo Critic-At-Large
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