Let me reframe the Healthcare debate into terms we can all understand or relate to? Picture this? You don’t have healthcare because what your company has been forced to accept is way too expensive. Without warning, now you need your appendix removed. It’s not an option because you could die. You need care, but the system doesn’t care. You had a chance to buy the company plan, but again you couldn’t afford it. Now you must pay and you are at the mercy of the system with no options. It’s a stickup and you don’t know what it’s going to cost. How is “Having No Option Better?” The hospital can legally steal from you and the police can’t help. With no option, nothing actually changed.
This dramatic example is being played out all across America. The healthcare plan offered at some companies is far too expensive. Cost makes it not an option to accept the terms. Did the employees have the right to negotiate? Heck no. It was a “Take it or leave it deal.” To survive, some are forced to leave it and therefore they are exposed. For minor things, people can go to Walgreens clinics and quick care clinics. What happens if someone needs something major like an appendix removed or surgery? We have no option. We are at the mercy of a healthcare system responsible for charging whatever they desire with no options. Our only option is “It’s a stickup.”
Avoiding this inequity was the initial point of “Healthcare Reform.” We wanted “Equal Access” to Penicillin and a Doctor. President Obama changed the debate to “Insurance Reform” and he has missed the entire point. It wasn’t Obama’s original idea, but he accepted it and won the election. Insurance is a monopoly. They don’t negotiate and they have no competition. They can legally “Hold us up.” The system is unfair, one-sided, and it’s “Take it or leave it.” To Leave it is the GOP plan or “Death.” As Humans, we know it is in our nature to get sick. We have a right to healthcare at a reasonable cost. The current system isn’t reasonable. This is wrong but Congress looks like they are wrestling and the outcome is fixed. Where is the change we all demanded?
In short, I voted for change and it seems like Congress is about to “Short Change” us all. Insurance Reform is like paying off the guy who blocks the door to the hospital. It’s like tipping the Doorman or you get the Bum’s Rush. Insurance Reform does nothing to address the skyrocketting cost of care. Insurance Reform demands we all pay something when we are not sick. Why can’t the President and Congress wrestle with issues that matter when we are sick? How much does it cost for a (CBC) complete blood count? How much is it if we need an appendix removed? Where’s the competition between the actual care providers? Show me the menus and the options? The debate is stuck at the door and it’s fake. Stop wrestling the truth because what Congress and Obama are doing is fake. Again, Andre the Giant let Hulk win. Insurance is a Giant Monopoly but they aren’t going to lay down. Go around them. Take it or leave it is not an option. Address the cost of care and kick the Giant in the behind. Forcing us to pay when not sick is a reward for the monopoly. This reform is fake just like wrestling.
December 5th, 2009 at 4:14 pm
So Congress is “Stuck” on the wording and the discussion about creating a “New Public Option” for healthcare for those left behind? Why create a new option if the other options can be used to cover 100% of the US legal population? Congress could pass “The Senator Ted Kennedy Compassion Act” where anyone not covered by insurance can be treated on an emergency basis in the existing healthcare system (VA Care). This pool of people would be opted into healthcare and then we can decide what they can afford and if their life is worth saving? After passing this bill with a stroke of a pen and taking the trillion dollars we don’t have off the table, then Congress can go after the insurance companies and strip them of their monopoly. Creating a new option is wrong. Paying off the insurance companies is a crime that the Democrats will pay for after all this bull crap is said and done.
December 6th, 2009 at 6:24 pm
An unknown pool of Americans have been left without healthcare. We are haggling about abortions, price, and how to help insurance companies. Shouldn’t the goal be access to healthcare for all at an affordable price? Helping insurance companies and demanding affordability are antethetical to each other. Can’t do both at the same time. We shouldn’t build a new system to care for those currently ignored. We should use the systems we have to guarantee access, then we should fix the problem imposed on healthcare by insurance and HMOs. Democrats, listen? Access to care comes before fixing the status quo. If you don’t get that you lose…period.
December 10th, 2009 at 7:52 pm
It’s impossible to be critical of a policy done totally in the dark, but it’s guaranteed that America will be critical of any process done in secret. There’s no secret as to who’s in charge and who will be blamed if it’s a bailout for the insurance companies. It’s not Progressives, Moderates or Liberals…It’s the Democrats. We didn’t change, we switched and this is a Republican solution to an age old problem called “Equal Opportunity.” It has been denied again.
December 16th, 2009 at 9:27 am
Comity is great comedy when something so good turns into something so bad due to compromise devoid of all compassion. Sometimes, doing nothing is far better than selling out your principles. Change we have is not the change we truly need. President Obama has failed just like his “Beer Summit on Race.”
December 17th, 2009 at 4:34 pm
Congress…Don’t Pass A Bad Bill! A Bad Bill hurts Obama. That will only help Hillary. That’s why Bill Clinton is for it. That’s why I’m with Howard Dean. A Bad Bill hurts only Obama for sitting on the sidelines doing nothing accepting a Nobel Prize he didn’t win and drinking beer in the White House after calling a police officer stupid. Let’s not forget he bailed out the Bank CEO’s and he is threatening us with bankruptcy if we don’t pass this bad bill. Obama is in trouble, not the Democrats. Do no harm. Obama took our issues and ran with them, but did nothing. A do nothing President has trouble running away from what he didn’t do. He didn’t do what was right for America so we vote with our feet. Don’t make the party suffer because Obama wasn’t the change we need.
December 19th, 2009 at 2:54 am
I’ve heard the arguments driving us to accept something far from perfect as a victory, but if this bill passes we still suffer the consequences until Congress decides to change it. They may never change it and force us to endure for our stupidity. Access to care is not the same thing as granting healthcare now is it? Once upon a time, we had access to water fountains but we dare not drink from it if we were “Colored.” Healthcare is the same issue except we discriminate against the sick and poor. “No Poor People Allowed?” Shame on Congress. Shame on Democrats for compromising it’s integrity and insulting our intelligence. This bill is far from perfect, no where near pretty good, and it’s done in secret. Shame on anyone telling us to “Take it or leave it.” We Can do better. Punt. Democrats Don’t Rush Obama. He wants Obama to fail. Do you?
December 20th, 2009 at 2:31 am
It’s Historic! That means it will be filled with problems and loopholes. It’s Fiscally Responsible! That means we are stupid if we think spending a trillion dollars we don’t have is smart. It’s Good For Seniors! Our seniors cash in insurance when they die, but healthcare keeps them alive. Denying them care is Good for Seniors? It Invests in Small Businesses! Small Business can’t negotiate costs. Finally, it Keeps Insurance Honest? WTF? They certainly aren’t honest now, but this will help keep the system unfair for some time to come. The process in the dark stinks like Dick Cheney doing Energy. Nothing changed! Rush Limbaugh wants Obama to fail. Don’t Rush Obama! Some Democrats may be on Rush’s Team too. Obamacare is a bad bill at the wrong time. Merry Christmas? Punt…go home and enjoy it?
December 20th, 2009 at 9:52 pm
I want universal healthcare not access to insurance. What’s the difference? One stands in line outside paying off the doorman while the beautiful people dance. This “Obamacare” forces everyone to stand in line paying something for nothing. You’ve still got to pay the DJ for the dances when you get inside…if you get inside. Nothing addresses the cost of the DJ and why pay for the music if you don’t want to dance or you’ve got to work? Who is forced to pay something for nothing…a fool. Obamacare is forcing us all to be fools dancing around the truth. It doesn’t lower cost or grant universal access or care. It pays the system a trillion dollars until they can collect more money from us if we are sick or not.