Reform Now: Pay Later
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Why is congress quibbling over how to pay?
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I put forth my argument for a single-payer system here: Single Payer Now
I know that senator Max Baucus made it clear that single payer was not an option for Health care reform. This is proving that our elected government doesn’t give a damn about what the American people really want. According to this CBS NEWS/NEW YORK TIMES POLL, a majority of Americans favor government provided health coverage.
Regardless, we have to take what we can get. Unfortunately it appears what we are getting is more of the same old garbage: The politicians not getting it done. They didn’t have a problem passing emergency war funding without fretting about how to pay for it. But now, with health care cost at critical mass, they balk at paying for reforms?
The American people are desparate for reform. The system is broken. This is an emergency. Did I balk at taking my 8 year-old son to Children’s Hospital emergency when his heart was in Supraventricular Tachycardia? No! Did I ask how much it was going to cost to have the cardiologist come in on Easter Sunday? Did I ask how much it was going to cost to have an echocardiogram? No! I just let the medical professionals do what they needed to do to fix my son. I didn’t think about the money until I was assured he was going to be okay.
That is what needs to happen right now. Congress needs to get this done. Provide us with health coverage. Worry about paying for it later. If you can do it to provide for killing people in the desert, you can do it to provide for healing people here in the U.S.
The best we can hope for in the absence of single payer is the “public option“. But the politicians are so deep in the pockets of the insurance indusry thieves that even a public option is questionable.
I voted for President Barack Obama not out of love for the man but because I felt he provided the least worst chance of some kind of change. And because Senator McCain is a dinosaur who had an air-head for a running mate. I am more sorely disappointed than I thought I would be. I haven’t given up hope yet. We are only a short way into his first year of office and Mr. Obama inherited a big, steaming pile of dung from the previous administration. The democrats have a “supermajority” in the Senate. They are the power party right now. They need to collectively grow a pair and get things done…NOW.
3 Comments
I certainly agree with you. Our health system is broken beyond repair. So many people have no insurance at all. Something has to be done.I think everyone should have insurance something like medicare. Of course we will have to pay but it still wont be as much as private insurance costs now.Not one of our citizens is more deserving of health care than another.
Well said Natels. I did read somewhere that small businesses over in America are paying more for health insurance than large businesses resulting in most small businesses having to cut benefits or shut-up shop for good. It’s a very depressing state of affairs – workers stressing-out over losing their coverage if they get too sick, lose/change their job – families worried they may not be able to get/change insurance if someone in their family has a pre-existing condition.
Pay later? What kind of lazy thinking is that. We can’t pay for anything right now anyway. How much did Bush and Obama give away to the financial districts? Its definitely in the trillions. And they will not even tell us where the money has gone. Right now we have no way to pay for this. Maybe if the democrats actually fought for ending the wars in the middle east like they campaigned for so much in the last few years, we might actually have some money to have universal health care and well funded national education. I think its really funny how some people keep running to the government to help them but time and time again most of our politicians have showed us that they are untrustworthy and are only out for themselves.
Obama for instance. He has balked on every single one of his campaign “promises for change”. What happened to ending the war? What happened to shutting down Guantanamo? What happened to stopping warrantless wiretapes? What happened to keeping things open and accountable to the people? All of his words were empty and shallow, it meant nothing to him. It might be hard for democrats and republicans to realize but nothing has changed from the last administration to this one. Nothing at all.
The people of this country have come to expect that everything be given to them. No one takes responsibility for their own actions. One of the reasons health care has become so expensive is because no one takes care of themselves. They eat what every they want and expect that there will be a nice easy pill for them to take that will fix everything. Our population is only getting fatter, cancer is on the rise, diabetes is on the rise as well as a whole host of problems.
The medical industry has become nothing more then a business whose goal is to make money. There are always exceptions but a patient cured is a customer lost. Why is it hospitals are only getting bigger and bigger while more and more of use are only getting sicker?
Why is that the FDA still allows products like Aspartame and other artificial sweeteners in just about all of our food products when they know that these products will and do cause all sorts of auto immune disorders?
The idea that its just the lack of health care in this country thats the problem is a joke in my eyes. I think the problem is much deeper. People need to take responsibility for themselves. We shouldn’t just take the words of our physicians at face value. We need to research ourselves and take a more active role in keeping ourselves healthy. Simply put: its all on us.