Dear Senate: About Health Care

I guess part of why I have sort of neglected this blog is, well, there is just too much going on and it's often tough to decide just exactly what to write about. Two wars, one in Iraq, one in Afghanistan, a shaky economy still shedding jobs at an alarming rate, and of course, what's uppermost on my mind, health care reform. I recently got cable TV so I am able to watch stations like C-SPAN. So a few weekends ago, I settled in on a Saturday afternoon to watch the House of Representatives debate their health care bill on that channel. I should have turned it off after a while because it was just the same old thing, over and over again: This bill will mean government takeover of our health care, it will add to the deficit, it means higher taxes for everyone, and on and on and on, ad infinitum. Same scare tactics coming from the Republicans, who are doing their utmost to shoot down health care reform as a way of taking down Obama for having the audacity to become our President by winning the last election fair and square. They are, of course, trying desperately to score political points by trying to destroy Obama's signature domestic agenda. Well, the House bill did pass on a vote of 220-215, a very narrow victory, but the high cost of it was an anti-abortion amendment that, in effect, reverses Roe v. Wade. I was saddened that it took such an anti-choice measure to get the bill passed, but it was done to curry favor with the Blue Dog Democrats and with an eye toward and a hope of wooing some Republicans to cross party lines to vote for the bill. As it is, it only got one Republican vote, Rep. Anh "Joseph" Cao of Louisiana. While I do not approve of the House bill (my hero Rep. Dennis Kucinich, D-OH, voted against it because he thought it was too conservative), I commend Rep. Cao for having the cojones to go against his party to vote with Democats on it. Of course, he probably has a motive, since he is from a state most recently ravaged by Hurricane Katrina.

So now tomorrow is the Senate's turn at debating their health care bill. What bothers me about both proposals from both Congressional Houses is that they both strike me as big giveaways to the insurance companies by delivering more clients to them to fleece. I would like to see insurance companies completely out of the health care business altogether. I do not want insurance companies making my medical decisions for me. That is what I have doctors for, to make those calls based on their years of schooling in medicine. I don't want some insurance wonk in a cubicle somewhere telling my doctor that he or she cannot treat me for something that they feel requires attention because they won't pay for it and I can't afford to do so out of my own pocket. Already, I have to tell doctors, sorry, don't run any tests if you can possibly help it, don't do any procedures, either, because my insurance doesn't cover that. No X-rays, no MRI's, none of that, can't afford to pay for those, either. It leaves my doctors hamstrung in their ability to treat me if I can't pay for it because I lack enough insurance to cover most medical costs. It's ridiculous to leave someone hanging out on a limb like that when it comes to one's health. But it seems like both the House and Senate are determined to deliver more clients to the insurance companies by compelling people to carry medical insurance or face stiff fines for not doing so. I disagree with this way of trying to fix health care. Even if you buy insurance, there is still always the risk that you'll end up with a high deductible, high co-pay plan like I have through my employer that leaves you susceptible to going broke if you get sick. It just doesn't make sense for the richest country in the world to have this sort of for profit health care system. Health care is not a commodity to be bought and sold on the market for profit. It is as human a right as clean water to drink and clean air to breathe. But it's going to take a long time to convince people of this, and until we do, we're just going to continue to have the same broken system that we've had all along, and nothing's going to change. Unfortunately, a lot of political capital is being wasted in Washington for nothing, because all they want to do is to take baby steps toward reform that could take decades to enact, and by that time, we aging Baby Boomers are going to be broke trying to pay the high cost of taking care of ourselves as our bodies grow older, if we even manage to live that long. As it is, I see far too many obits in the newspaper for people my age and far younger. I think ours is going to be the generation that won't live as long as our parents have managed to, sadly, so no one's going to have to fret that we're going to break Medicare. Frankly, not that many of us are going to make it to age 65 at the rate I see people my age and younger dying, so I wish Washington would stop fretting about the Boomers. We're a generation hell bent on living fast and dying young. So Medicare will be just fine, if what I am seeing in the papers holds true. Too bad my generation won't live long enough to enjoy its benefits. We're going to be paying the high cost of health care out of our own pockets and nothing is going to change that for us, sadly.