The Health care reform, Obama’s major legislation, is in front of the Supreme Court. The people who are fundamentally against it say that the legislation is unconstitutional.
Now let us look at the history of this piece of legislation.
In 1993 former President Clinton asked First Lady Hilary Clinton to head the Health Care Reform Act.
Conservatives including conservative think tanks such as the Heritage Foundation said that a single payer was a bad idea, and that a individual mandate was the right way to do it.
Mitt Romney passed the legislation in Massachusetts that included a personal mandate. Newt Gingrich in 1993 said that a individual mandate was the right way to go, Bob Dole said the same thing.
Now let's shift to 2009 and Obama in the White House. The President proposes the Health Care Reform. All these institutions and individuals who had said in the past that the individual mandate was unconstitutional. They had forgotten completely what they had proposed and supported 16 years earlier. When I was growing up we used to have a saying that said “I don’t know what you guys are discussing but I’m against it”. That is the behavior of the Republican Party.
We know perfectly well that Health Care companies, Corporate America, and Wall Street were against the Reform. Their concern, that down the road we could have a single payer system such as in most other industrialized nations where the cost is much lower per person than in the US and that output or result is higher. Conservatives tell us that the health care in the US is the best in the world. What they don't mention is that it’s the best if you can afford it, that it is run by insurance companies deciding what kind of coverage each individual receives, and when these insurance companies will pull the plug in terms of coverage. Studies done by reputable institutions show that the US health care is rated in number 36 in the world, with France being number 1. Our premiums are high, with copays for everything from visit to the doctor, to hospital, to medication. The cost of my family between doctors and medications for 2011 was over $4000. Not exactly pocket change, and that is with health coverage, and that does not include the insurance itself. In countries such as Canada, a place that conservatives bad mouth, braces for teeth for the young are free, and for adults more than 50% of the treatment is covered, while in the US braces are not covered at all. Most kids tend to have crooked teeth and need treatment. In states like NJ the cost of that is over $5000. Not a number that every family can afford.
Now let us look at the main group who organized through the power of big funders, and then ran against the Health Care in 2010, the Tea Party, their proposal is that the individual mandate should be eliminated, and if they could have their way repeal the whole legislation. But, what are they proposing if they repeal Obamacare, like they call it? Nothing, just go back to what we had before. That would mean that college students whose age is between 21 and 26 would have to purchase their own health care instead of being included in their parents insurance, people with pre-conditions would lose their coverage, and that insurances could use all the money they would like for lobbing and advertising instead of the what the bill states which is 80% of premiums goes to health care coverage and 20% administration and other expenses.
What the Tea Party people believe is that nobody should force them to pay for coverage, so that if they have an accident or get sick in another state that is not their place of residence the rest of us who pay for health coverage pay for it, with higher premiums, or have hospitals and doctors eat the expense.
I think the choice is very simple. For the people who think that the health system is so great they should volunteer to work for a couple of months in a hospital, in a doctor's office or become sick, and not listen to Fox News or Rush Limbaugh and base their own opinion on that. Their opinion will change overnight.
No comments:
Post a Comment