Health Care Reform Debate

An Open Letter to The Grand Obstructionists:

So, Health Care Reform appears to be DOA. Congratulations, you should be ashamed of yourselves. The American people want, need, and deserve Health Care Reform, or at least informed debate on the subject, but all we get is the Keystone Caper you have brought the American government to be, and zero results. Mr. Lincoln’s dream of a government of, by, and for the people has, unfortunately, perished as you continue to carry water for the big-monied special interests at the expense of the American public.

Make no mistake, the people collectively are bearing the expense. We pay far more (16% of GNP - more than twice as much as any other modern industrialized society) yet settle for far less. In case you hadn’t noticed, health insurance premiums have more than doubled in the last ten years, and are only projected to continue to rise, exponentially. Yes, American medicine is among the best in the world, when it’s available, but that probably doesn’t mean much to the 22,000 Americans who die every year because they can’t afford to see a doctor. That doesn’t happen in any other modern democracy, because the society does not allow it to happen. We choose to allow it to happen. 22,000 deaths annually. Seven 9/11’s, every year. We also allow 700,000 or so bankruptcies annually because of medical expenses. Again, other societies don’t allow that to happen. Universal health care coverage – not socialized medicine – is a fact of life in almost every modern society today. Conversely, in our feudal system, which mostly benefits insurance companies (whose collective profits run in the Billions annually), roughly 15% of us go uninsured. It’s not about ‘Death Panels’ or ‘Government Control’, it’s about making sure your neighbors can see a doctor when they need to. Government doesn’t want to make health care decisions; a government of, by, and for the people is there, Constitutionally, to provide for the general welfare. Profit-driven insurance companies do want to – and do – make health care decisions. And, in padding their bottom line, they are taking from us all. When Americans can’t afford to see a doctor, it’s an expense we all bear, collectively. The deaths. The bankruptcies. The financial costs when companies are forced to close because they can’t afford to insure their workers. It all makes it hard to compete in the global marketplace. Health care, the way it is, the way obstructionist so fiercely defend, is consuming our economy and our nation as a whole. So, again, congratulations. Anything for politics.

About that ‘informed debate’. Try, if you can tear your eyes away from ‘FAUX NEWS’, to represent the peoples interests by informing yourself on the subject. A simple look at factcheck.org can probably dispel 90% of the hyperbole that passes for debate. T.R. Reid’s “The Healing of America’ should probably be mandatory reading for anyone who wishes to join the debate. Bottom line: quit celebrating your obstructive ways, put down the water pails and start moving some of the stones out of the passway.

And a PS to the Dem dang donkeys: Grow some. Stand up for your principles, instead of worrying about your re-election. Keep the message simple, and repeat it. And forget the super-majority; let ‘em filibuster and show themselves the fool. We, the American public, deserve honest representation even more than we need health care reform. Let’s roll.